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KSA failing to live up to Supreme Court Order...
Posted: September 20, 2006
The sad truth of the matter is that the Reduce All Fees - New Student Vision Party has abused the power given to them by the students of Kwantlen University College.
In August 2006, a Supreme Court of British Columbia order was agreed to by the current KSA administration, and paragraph 13 of this order stated...
"13. The Interim Council shall meet on or before Friday, September 1, 2006 and every two (2) weeks thereafter, and shall be provided with current and complete financial information, including, but not limited to:
a. The current budget of the KSA and what has been spent to date;
b. The current assets and obligations of the KSA; and
c. A list of all bank accounts held by the KSA, including any capital, mortgage, investment or credit accounts, and current bank statements for each.
After exactly three (3) meetings of the KSA Board of Directors (on September 1, 8 and 15), no financial information has been released to the Interim Board or to the students of Kwantlen. This is evident by the agendas and minutes that have been made available so far (some are also online at kusa.ca)...
The September 8 agenda has the most information in it, however none of the reports in the agenda go into any real or significant detail about the current financial state of the Society.
On September 18, Joey Atwal, former Executive Director of Events and Student Life in 2005, who was elected as Treasurer in January 2006, and is now a voting member of the Interim Board of Directors, sent out an e-mail to the Board of Directors regarding how he intended to release financial information.
Specifically, Joey states that...
"...it will be my reccomendation to have the information released in an incamera session only. The reasoning for this is perfectly clear:
Some directors have blatantly displayed their disregard for the ksa constitution in that they have done things that have NOT been in the best interest of the society. I will not elaborate on these acts seeing as they could eventually end up in court because of their seriousness, and for this I will not comment further."
Lisa Coan, recent Kwantlen Marketing Management diploma graduate and 2005-06 Student Board of Governors Representative had this to say about Treasurer Joey Atwal's comments...
"RAF / New Student Vision is wasting time by contradicting themselves and blatantly disregarding the Society Act. I am no longer a kwantlen student, but I strongly believe that no one should be allowed to act this way! RAF is continually and blatantly ignoring the Society Act, which states:
Accounting records
36 (1) A society must keep proper accounting records in respect of all its financial and other transactions.
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), a society must keep records of the following:
(a) all money received and disbursed by the society and the matter in respect of which the receipt and disbursement took place;
(b) every asset and liability of the society;
(c) every other transaction affecting the financial position of the society.
Inspection by members
37 Unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, the documents, including the accounting records, of a society must be open to the inspection of a director or member on reasonable notice to the society."
By not handing over the financial records that they themselves have admitted would expose guilty directors, RAF / New Student Vision is disregarding the Society Act - and those directors who are helping to hide and cover up that fraud are just as guilty. If certain directors are committing fraud, then that information should be released."
Student and Interim Board Member Steven Lee agrees, and in an e-mail response to Joey Atwal and the KSA Interim Council, Steve called on the KSA to:
"...release as much financial information as possible... (and) to this end, I would ask that as much information as possible be released out of camera, in a report that is included with the meeting agenda... What lead to the court action(s) on the part of the students was a concern over the financial management of the society and an on-going concern that its true financial state was being hidden from the membership by some staff and elected officials. As the interim board, we must make as much effort to become as transparent as possible - which I realize may be difficult for some, and may lead to serious legal repercussions for others. In short, let the cards fall where they may - the students deserve to know how their money is being handled!
Only time will tell if the KSA will disclose details of its true financial status. All students should come out to the September 29, 2006 KSA meeting, which will be held starting at either 4:00pm or 5:00pm, on the Surrey Campus (exact time and location to be announced by Wedensday, September 27, 2006).
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