LAMENTING WHAT IT dubs as the “questionable actions” of the University’s Accounting Office, the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Student Council (SC), along with the Student Organization Circle (SOC), have struck a dialogue with the University administration to address what they perceive as the Office’s “lapses.”
Last March 6, SC Treasurer Enrique Louise Bonete, forwarded a letter of complaint to Rev. Fr. Aloysius Ma. A. Maranan, OSB, the University Rector-President, as well as calling the attention of the Vice President for Finance, Rev. Fr. Placido Ma. Acta, OSB. The letter disclosed crucial information concerning the Accounting Office’s “unjust” practices and “odd procedures” that have delayed the operations of student organizations and negatively affected its governing bodies.
In an interview with Bonete, he elucidated the rationale behind filing the complaint letter. He stated how “concerned” he was with the Accounting Office regarding its handling of the financial matters of student organizations. One of the biggest points made by the letter was how the Office “withheld” the San Beda Economics Society’s (SBES) last remaining Php10,000 of its organization fund.
SBES President Jaca Luis Astudillo shared that this was due to a supposed “policy” by the Accounting Office stating that all organizations must “leave PHP10,000” to the Office to cover for “unforeseen/sudden expenses” incurred by the organization. However, he adds that no such policy was raised nor mentioned during the General Assembly (GA) for student organizations with the Accounting Office during the onset of the first semester.
From Bonete’s point of view, “according to article 8 of our Student Handbook, specifically, if i’m right, na hindi kasama ang accounting process when it comes to the allocation of funds,” adding that the job of the Accounting Office is to only “liquidate and audit” the finances.
Bonete added that the money to be used by SBES was noted in their activity budget matrix, which confused him as to why they were withholding from SBES their own organization’s funds.
For SBES to “use and withdraw” the remaining organization fund, it struck a dialogue with the SC as well with the CAS Dean, Prof. Christian Bryan Bustamante, PhD. just so that the Accounting Office could release it.
Bonete was clearly bothered, stating that “it’s not impossible na nangyari ito sa ibang professional organizations din.”
Astudillo, on the other hand, commented that if such “policy” existed, “organizations should be informed” so as not to hamper an organization’s planning expenditure due to “unforeseen” budget restrictions.
Aside from this, there were also other concerns raised in their letter to the Accounting Office. Among them is the Office’s “disregard to student queries,” “negligence in handling of the documents,” wherein the SC Treasurer had to redo multiple cash requests to the Accounting Office, as well as “delays in the release of the cash disbursement reports.”
The SC Treasurer says that these delays caused student organization officers to shoulder the expenses of their respective organizations just to execute their own events at their expense, waiting to be reimbursed only once the Accounting Office releases the delayed organization fund.
“Money is the lifeblood of any activity. ‘Pag wala kang pera, wala kang magagawa. So with that, ‘pag wala na talaga kaming choice, ako nag-aabono ako,” bared Bonete as he emphasized that this incident occurs from time-to-time.
Despite all of this, Bonete believes that “this [issue with the Accounting Office] can be addressed because I think we have cooperative administrative officers.” Despite this, he still “acknowledges” their role, stating that “the Accounting Office will keep our funds.”
The SC Treasurer adds that he “wishes” for the aforementioned issues to be resolved and for all confusion to be clarified. For his part, Astudillo shared Bonete’s sentiments, saying that he is hoping that concerns will be addressed and clarified with “sufficient basis and explanation.”
The letter was sent to the Office of the Rector-President last March 6 and was endorsed by the CAS Prefect of Student Activities, Prof. Marvin Reyes, PhD., and Dean Bustamante. Fr. Maranan has yet to reply to the SC.
This is a developing story.