November 25, 2008 News

Student union admits financial irregularity

by Terrine Friday

According to Concordia Student Union councillors, the closed session that followed the Nov. 12 regular meeting had a hidden item on its agenda.

Councillors who wish to remain anonymous said the CSU’s lawyers made an appearance during closed session and requested all councillors sign a confidentiality agreement—right before speaking about misappropriation of funds.

“Well, I signed a confidentiality agreement, so I can’t talk about what was discussed during that closed session,” said one of the councillors.

“I’m legally bound to not talk about what happened and there could be ramifications,” the councillor continued, but noted the secretive discussion was not what was listed on the agenda.

The last item on the council meeting’s agenda read “Budget.” According to another source that cannot be named, this was misleading since only part of the closed session was about the budget. The rest, they say, was about the union’s financial irregularities, which CSU president Keyana Kashfi will make public in the future.

Councillors say the confidentiality agreement was to be signed at an informational meeting scheduled for Nov. 5, but it was postponed because not enough students could make it. It was therefore presented to Council the following week.

The last time a financial irregularity made headlines at Concordia was in the fall of 2000. Sheryll Navidad, then-VP finance of the CSU, embezzled $193,061.71.

The financial irregularity forced fee levy groups such as CJLO and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights to manage their finances without any student union funding. CSU forensic accountant Johanne Faucher reported the internal fraud in Nov. 2000 when the CSU first discovered that the money was missing.

According to former CSU bookkeeper Amad Mahboub, then-CSU president Rob Green knew about the deficit for almost three months and did not report it. Mahboub intercepted and discovered the fraud.

It was stated in the auditor’s report that Green had co-signed all cheques made out by Navidad.

Green reported no recollection of signing the cheques and admitted the union “didn’t have the structures in place” to avoid the cash grab.

—with files from Ariel Troster, Tina Christopoulos, Pierre-Olivier Savoie and Rene Biberstein