The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) released its audited financial statements for the 2013-14 year.
The audit revealed that the deficit of $706,773 from the 2012-13 year has been reduced drastically, leaving a deficit of $159,679.
CUSA maintains the deficit is a result of the loss of the Unicentre fee, an annual fee paid by graduate students to CUSA for the use of undergraduate service centres.
CUSA president Folarin Odunayo said the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) was attempting to link two unconnected things in their statement by noting they “cannot trust” CUSA with the handling of grad student money.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with the audit. I think that they’re trying to connect dots here that are not even on the same page,” Odunayo said.
The GSA said in a statement released Nov. 25 that the deficit in the CUSA budget is not a result of lost Unicentre fees. The statement, entitled “Can ABC 1-2-3,” a reference to the A Better Carleton slate of which Odunayo is president, alleged the missing money has nothing to do with the GSA.
“The GSA has nothing to do with CUSA’s massive deficit and embarrassing financial situation,” the statement read. “Any money potentially owed to CUSA from the GSA has already been counted in CUSA’s audited statements as an ‘accounts receivable.’”
This means the money lost from the GSA is lost revenue, and does not contribute to the past deficit.
While the GSA used to contribute around $113,000 in Unicentre fees to CUSA each year, in 2012-13, they only contributed $40,177, according to the 2012-13 audit. GSA vice-president (academic) Michael Bueckert explained the Unicentre fees were already factored into the $706,773 deficit at the time of the audit.
“But basically, the money is already being calculated into the statement of operations so that the revenue that CUSA expects to get from the GSA is already incorporated as revenue and so it does not affect the deficit,” Bueckert said. “For example, if the anticipated revenue from the GSA was not included, then the deficit would actually be $40,000 higher.”
The GSA voted overwhelmingly in September to stop paying the Unicentre fee to CUSA, and Bueckert said in practice this means the GSA would distribute it themselves through partnerships with individual groups.
“The proposal is not to stop funding for student services, it wouldn’t be that student groups on campus are down . . . it would be that the GSA directly administers it,” Bueckert said. “It’s not about denying any student services money.”
The audit reported high revenue from other sources, including student fees and other business operations.
CUSA incorporated with Haven Books in 2012, at a cost of $488,394, a cost that was reflected in the deficit but not the budget.
CUSA’s massive deficit from 2012-13 can be attributed to the cancelled Rick Ross concert, as well as increased business costs at Oliver’s Pub, according to Odunayo.
The audited financial statements from 2012-13 and 2013-14 will be presented at the Dec. 3 CUSA council meeting.
The audited financial statement from 2012-13 was due to be presented to council last year, but was only put online and never formally presented.
Odunayo said students should be present at the Dec. 3 meeting to hear the information for themselves.
“If people want that hard numbers and they want the complete information, they should come to the meeting. Things like this only add fuel to a fire that is not necessarily burning that high,” he said.
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