As a taxpayer, you pay taxes. With your tax dollars, you expect the government to provide services and ensure common good. In order to spend your money, the government communicates how it aims to spend your money and introduces a draft budget for debate and consideration by your representatives.
This budget can be amended and thoroughly scrutinized by your representatives before being passed. This system is appropriate given that the government aims to spend your money.
Currently, the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) council is dysfunctional due to lack of transparency and accountability of the executive.
This summer, CUSA council has sat three times. On more than one occasion, the meetings could not take place and had to be adjourned before any official business could be addressed.
A council meeting was supposed to take place July 26, yet again, the meeting was postponed. The proposed agenda for that meeting included vice-president (finance) Karim Khamisa’s motion for adoption of his mystery budget. As of now, council — your representatives — have yet to see his mystery budget, despite numerous requests for its release.
On each occasion, Khamisa refused, despite the fact that he continues to put forward motions to adopt his mystery budget.
The fact is CUSA’s operating budget is roughly $2 million. This is not including CUSA health and dental plan and the U-Pass program.
CUSA’s budget is allocated to the nine service centres, the four businesses CUSA manages, clubs and societies programming, and various other programs, including but not limited to the Ombudsman’s office.
To give you an example of other past budget expenditures, each executive currently makes a salary of $36,000 — one of the highest in Canada.
Last year, CUSA’s vice-president’s (student life) operations totalled just over $200,000, and the vice-president (student issues) spent $50,000 on controversial campaigns. These campaigns, including, but not limited to Canadian Federation of Students campaigns, do not even reflect the values of most of the student body. Needless to say, they do not reflect everyone and should not be paid for by everyone.
In recent years, further details of how these monies were spent was not disclosed. That is hundreds of thousands of dollars of your money that was spent without any oversight or disclosure.
This lack of transparency and clear disregard for students’ right to know how their money is being spent is irresponsible and leaves room for misappropriation.
Based on reports to council, as it stands, the vice-president (finance) wants to waste your money on concerts, campaigns, and condoms.
It seems that the bulk of the money would be at the executive’s discretionary disposal and that service centres would not receive their fair share.
So far, the only reasonable action from an executive has been [president Obed Okyere] consulting with the service centre coordinators to discuss long overdue renovations and other funding issues.
This is your money — you and your CUSA representatives should know how it is being spent.
Instead, the vice-president (finance) is asking for a blank cheque for $2 million of your money.
Most people would not hand out blank cheques for millions of dollars. I cannot and will not vote to adopt something my colleagues and I have been barred from seeing.
Given that this is a detailed and complicated document, it is even more irresponsible that the budget has not been released for consideration and debate in advance of a vote. Carleton students deserve better.
We, the student body, must demand accountability and transparency from our CUSA executive who claim to uphold these very beliefs.
– Ashley Scorpio is the special student representative to CUSA. She says the CUSA executives need to make the budget more transparent.
