The Legislative Assembly (LA) convened last January 23 to approve the manifesto that called for the condemnation of corruption cases, as well as discuss a resolution on a new appropriation method to handle excess unused funds.
Originally, the LA was set to decide on the approval of the replacement officer for School of Economics (SOE) College President. However, the decision was postponed since the candidate, Rayne Roque, was not available at the time. It was later decided that a special session will be held next week to settle the matter.
After which, they proceeded to discuss and approve the manifesto on the condemnation of corruption cases. The manifesto was decided upon to address the recent corruption cases within the national government, particularly the Senate.
The LA stressed that these numerous cases are alarming, and have significantly increased public distrust to the government. The LA furthered that the Blue Ribbon Committee, who is in charge of looking into these cases, should conduct investigations on these matters thoroughly.
Afterwards, the LA began their discussions on developing a new appropriation system within the student government. The decision came after discovering that there are existing funds which have been left unappropriated in the account of the USG.
This resulted from a discrepancy between the record books of the Office of the Treasurer (OTREAS) and DLSU’s Accounting Office as some deposits were made to the account without the knowledge of the former. The unused funds have been an issue since 1986, and since then it has ballooned to the amount of Php946, 999.09.
In order to address the issue and to utilize the unused funds, an appropriation system was decided that would allow the funds to be distributed to different organizations. Essentially, the system would work similar to how Congress passes appropriation bills when funding government projects.
If approved, the appropriation system would help smaller organizations pursue their projects by providing them funds they lack. As of press time, the LA has yet to approve the resolution due to the heavy financial implications of its approval. Further discussions and deliberations on the matter will be conducted next week.
