The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) could lose its funding from Carleton University because of its failure to pass a budget and other bylaw violations, according to experts.
RRRA has yet to pass its budget for the 2019-20 school year—with only two months left before summer—even though the organization’s bylaws stipulate the budget must be presented by the second council meeting, which RRRA held three months ago.
The organization attempted to pass the budget during two council meetings on Feb. 9 and Feb. 11, but failed to meet the minimum requirement of 20 council members in attendance at both meetings.
Cochrane presented the budget to councillors in attendance at the Feb. 11 meeting and also said he emailed the budget to all councillors.
Because the university collects fees from students and then transfers the money to RRRA, the university could withhold those fees if it isn’t satisfied with the administration of the organization, according to Richard Deklerk, a chartered professional accountant and professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management.
“The biggest thing [the university] could do is probably just kick them out,” said Deklerk.
RRRA also violated their bylaws by failing to form all six bylaw-mandated committees before Nov. 1. Meetings weren’t finalized until Jan. 13, more than two months late.
The financial review committee also must meet at least once a month from October to March, excluding December. However, the committee’s first meeting was on Feb. 5.
“The ones who should look at [the budget and audit] is the council,” said François Brouard, a Carleton accounting and taxation professor.
Brouard added members of RRRA–any undergraduate residence student who pays RRRA fees—should raise questions about the organization because there is little public information available. Meeting minutes are not available online and while RRRA amended its constitution on Dec. 1, its website still lists the constitution from November 2017.
Although RRRA president Douglas Cochrane did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication, he said in an interview on Feb. 9 that the newest version of the constitution isn’t publicly available because the website is contracted out and RRRA must go through the developer to update it.
However, videos of RRRA’s two council meetings and one constitutional review meeting are available on its Facebook page.
While Cochrane said in an interview on Feb. 7 that RRRA’s budget was initially delayed partly because of an ongoing financial audit, Cheesman and Brouard said that statement is false.
“There’s nothing that precludes to have a budget, even during the audit,” said Brouard.
“You can plan for what is going to happen without concluding the audit,” Cheesman agreed.
However, Ian Lee, an associate professor of management at the Sprott School of Business, disagreed.
“You have to have the audited financials in hand for the previous year in order to develop the budget for the year going forward,” Lee said.
Cochrane also said the Student Choice Initiative contributed to the budget delay. While it would have affected the revenue flow of RRRA and was a valid reason for the delay, Brouard said RRRA executives should have approximated the percentage of the funds compared to last year.
“A budget is your plan and its choices,” said Brouard. “If you have more or less money, you will make choices, but it’s basically to put your choices on the table.”
Despite the missteps, Brouard said he doesn’t believe RRRA will lose its funding this year. Neither does Lee.
“I’m sure if [Carleton was] concerned they would communicate that to the RRRA board,” said Lee.
However, university administration has not described any reprimanding measures to be taken towards the organization.
“Carleton University continues to work with RRRA in order to resolve the organization’s issues,” the university said in a statement.
Regardless of why the budget is delayed, Deklerk said even if RRRA does pass a budget, it will be too little too late.
“They should be able to come up with a budget,” said Deklerk. “You may not like the budget, but come on, you know what the expenses are from year to year. They don’t change much.”
“If you’re having [the budget] in January or March, there’s not even a need for a budget,” said Brouard.
“Having a budget at the end of the year is useless. That defeats the purpose of the budget.”
Featured image from file.
