The University Student Government (USG) released the balances of its different units last March 14. Originally carried out in compliance of a Legislative Assembly (LA) resolution which called for the establishment of an Appropriations Fund System (AFS), the alleged untimely posting of the balances has received massive backlash online, calling into question both the legitimacy of the figures and the motives for posting while the USG General Elections (GE) are still underway.
Following the bill
In order to shed more light on the matter, the Office of the Executive Treasurer (OTREAS) and the LA issued a joint statement last March 15, explaining that the balances released were part of an approved resolution and have been available via the USG website as early as March 8.
The resolution in question, which was passed last February 23, called for an AFS within the USG to help resolve the unused funds left over from the previous academic year. In the said resolution, it stated that once adopted, “an initial online publication of standing USG balances, and the appropriations manual shall be made available.” However, the resolution also stated that the system will only take effect 14 days after it is approved.
Responding to complaints on the accuracy of the post, the statement clarified that “the publication did not act as a financial report, but rather a documentary disclosure in compliance with the law; the obedience to which is upheld above all else regardless of any unrelated circumstances.”
Nevertheless, the statement admitted that the posted balances were outdated as these were the available figures as of March 3, but stressed that transactions must be processed through various administrative offices before they are reflected in the USG’s records.
False negatives
One of the main complaints in the post was the misattributed deficits of the Office of the Vice President for Internal Affairs (OVPIA) and the School of Economics Government (SEG). According to the unupdated balances, OVPIA was facing a debt of P119,670.44, while SEG had P24,057.60. However, as of the latest report from the Treasurer’s Assembly last March 15, both units no longer showed any losses.
In fact, the updated balance, which is posted on the USG website, showed that OVPIA has a current balance of P423,518.56, while SEG has a current balance of P75,492.40. The numbers originally reported show such a discrepancy to the actual balances that it put into question the untimely released report.
In response to the posted report, SEG clarified that the college government was not at a loss. They stated that they were still coordinating with OTREAS as payment deposits from the Economic Leaders Congress held in the previous term have yet to be declared which led to the negative balance.
Vice President for Internal Affairs and presidential candidate Pram Menghrajani said in her statement that the timing was suspicious, specifically because it was done on a Saturday evening after school offices have already closed. Further, she added that neither OTREAS nor the Commission on Audit (COA) were aware of the report released online.
“This brings into question the veracity of the report and which USG unit decided to publish it. Since it is an unofficial, unaudited and unupdated report, what was the purpose of coming up with such a statement other than to damage and malign the offices that have negative balances,” she said in her statement.
She also clarified with OTREAS that OVPIA indeed was not having a deficit. Rather, as she explained, the alleged debt in the office was a result of errors made in the books, specifically a double billing of a P165,000 expense incurred from a planner selling activity and a misattributed charge of P33,000.
Menghrajani reiterated that the information to be disclosed to the public should have been verified first in order to ensure that transparency and accountability in the USG is maintained. In this case, she stressed that OTREAS and COA should have approved the figures before such a release was made, and that supplementary details should be affixed in order to explain how such values arose.
“Let us all be vigilant because our freedoms can be abused by people with agendas or ambitions. True transparency should withstand scrutiny and must reflect fair play and impartiality,” she stated.
No motives?
USG president Carlo Inocencio said that although he was expecting publicity materials to be blasted in compliance with the resolution, he was not informed about the specific time and date of the blasting.
USG Executive Secretary Janel Tumpalan clarified that her office was responsible in making the publicity material of the account balances in fulfillment of the AFS. Tumpalan explained that since they had to comply with the 14-day disclosing of financial statements, they used the latest data available to them, which was the balance as of March 3.
As for the updated balances, Tumpalan said that they are still currently confirming the information with the OTREAS and would blast the updated balances as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Chief Legislator Patrick Kahn shared that as part of the effectiveness of the resolution, balances will be disseminated on a regular basis.