January 20, 2009 Letters

A message from the president of the CSU

Dear members of the Concordia Student Union,

Over the last few months you may have heard rumors about the financial status of the Concordia Student Union. These rumors have been propagated largely by an inaccurate article in the Nov. 25 issue of The Link and exploited by sometime student, part-time lawyer and long-time back-room politico Patrice Blais.

As I am President of the CSU, it is my responsibility to set the record straight about the finances of our student union. In early 2002, Patrice Blais took control of the CSU after the recall of his previous executive amidst serious questions about the union’s finances. Marie Lyonnais was hired in 2002 to act as the CSU’s financial controller/bookkeeper yet she began to be absent from work regularly because of “personal issues” from 2005 until her resignation in June 2007.

Mohammad Shuriye, President in 2005-‘06, and the President and VP Finance of 2006-‘07, all failed to properly follow up on her work, despite it being their legal and fiduciary responsibility to do so, setting the course for the problems to come. During this time Lyonnais failed to open tax assessments for unpaid taxes from the Provincial and Federal governments, misplaced payroll records, and neglected to perform many day-to-day tasks essential to keeping the CSU in good financial standing.

From June 2007 until now, the CSU executive lead by Angelica Novoa in ‘07-‘08 and me in ‘08-‘09 have taken direct action to ensure the CSU’s financial security and accountability. In June 2007, the Executive mandated a tax lawyer to initiate discussions with the federal and provincial tax authorities to negotiate payment schedules and hired a Forensic Accountant to perform a forensic audit of all CSU accounts. The executive also hired a Director of Finance and Administration, a certified accountant with in-depth knowledge of the CSU’s accounting system in August 2007, and a qualified bookkeeper that all provide scheduled updates to the President or VP Finance.

In addition to the changes to improve the CSU’s organizational structure, the CSU’s financial controls have also been drastically strengthened—for example, all disbursements now require at least two authorizations before a cheque is produced—and all dealings with the government and external organizations are up to date and properly documented in an efficient manner.

This year, my Executive and I have continued to improve on these positive changes while providing new services and larger events to students than ever before. For example, Orientation 2008 featuring Talib Kweli and The Stills and the upcoming Spike Lee CSU Speaker Series lecture are some of the biggest events we’ve ever hosted yet we’ve managed to actually save student money and fund them almost entirely through sponsors due to our aggressive fundraising.

After a two-month negotiation process, I also managed to obtain several more benefits for our Student Health and Dental Plan while incurring no extra costs to us, the members of the Concordia Student Union. In addition, I secured an extra $100,000 from our insurance provider to go directly into the cost of CSU’s Health Plan which will help offset the expenses incurred due to the CSU’s financial problems.

In November, the investigation into Lyonnais' negligence finally provided us with enough concrete information to present our findings to CSU Council. The investigation is still ongoing, making it difficult to discern the extent of the legal action to be taken. Financial transparency is a top priority for the CSU Executive and Council and we have already spent many hours working to rectify this problem.

I also feel as though I must clarify that I provided Ms. Friday with all financial documentation she requested, contrary to the statements made in the article and editorial. Ms. Friday was also under the false impression that former VP Finance, Fauve Castagna, had prepared a lengthy document that I refused to disclose to her, when no such document exists. It is my full objective to provide the student body with all the documents you have rights to and it concerns me that Ms. Friday was claiming otherwise.

The current CSU executive will continue to work tirelessly to keep you informed, as I hope you will since this is your union. Despite everything that my executive and I have had to deal with this past year, it is imperative that students know that their union is now doing very well and has weathered people’s negligence to survive and become stronger than ever. As always, feel free to approach me should you have any questions or comments regarding the CSU or Concordia as a whole.

—Keyana Kashfi,
President of the Concordia Student Union