The Division of Internal Review (DIR), an internal auditing program within the ASSU set up by ASSU Executive Michael Cruz ’12 and DIR director Andrew Aguilar ’14, has run into several problems getting off the ground.
Several senators – during interviews and Senate meetings – and members of the DIR itself have expressed their frustration at the lack of progress. And according to some within Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), the financial arm of the ASSU, the program does not promise anything new.
The DIR was set up Oct. 19, after first failing a vote at an ASSU Undergraduate Senate meeting the week before due to controversial confidentiality clauses. Confusion surrounded several clauses in the bill that would have allowed the DIR to keep some information, such as bank account numbers and credit card information, confidential, a violation of the ASSU Freedom of Information policy.
The ASSU Constitution reads, “All records of any Association entity must be available for scrutiny by the public with the exception of proprietary business information of Association businesses, financial records for non-funded accounts of organizations banking with the Association, Legal Counseling records and personnel records of employees. Every other Association organ must allow access to records. This access must be open to all and subject only to administrative requirements to safeguard the information and to provide access in a timely, efficient manner.”
DIR was supposed to have access to financial information that is normally available to all students, such as the financial information of Voluntary Student Organizations (VSOs). The same constitutional passage, listed above, that prevents them from making information confidential also guarantees them, and all Stanford students, access to all financial information regarding funding accounts.
However the records of these “funded” accounts, which contain ASSU money, are merged together with private accounts called “2800” accounts, which are solely owned and operated by the student group and SSE. According to the ASSU constitution, the SSE must keep this financial information secure and confidential, even from the ASSU.
The ultimate responsibility for making sure this information is available lies with the ASSU Financial Officer, Neveen Mahmoud ’11, according to Cruz.
“The way it’s framed, DIR can’t do this work because it’s too much information,” Aguilar said.
“There’s no way for us to separate out funded receipts and unfunded receipts,” said Dylan Plofker ’12, director of the Capital Group (CAPS), the arm of the SSE responsible for handling student accounts.
Aguilar’s DIR team of 12 people, all unpaid, are waiting, unable to do their jobs and with a quickly approaching January deadline at the first day of Winter Quarter, when the DIR’s mandate expires and the Senate must decide whether to renew the program.
The entire process has been frustrating for Senator Ben Laufer ’12, who has asked Cruz to have Aguilar visit the Senate meeting for the past three weeks. Aguilar said he was unaware of any such requests.
“In theory, the DIR could be helpful and a valuable component of the ASSU, but the Senate hasn’t been updated in over a month,” Laufer said, expressing frustration at the slow pace of progress towards the DIR’s goal of auditing VSOs and the poor communication between the Executive and the Senate.
Plofker was originally confused by the objectives of the DIR’s auditing process. The SSE already has several students who look over every transaction and receipt, as well as a full-time accountant who is in charge of making sure receipts are processed correctly and are withdrawn from the correct accounts.
“If it’s for a funded account, we make sure it all matches up completely before we process and approve it,” Plofker said.
When asked whether the DIR would be doing anything the SSE doesn’t already do with these financial documents, Plofker responded with an unequivocal “no.”
“I’ve also been frustrated by the delays, but I understand why they have occurred,” said Cruz, who is working with Aguilar and Plofker, as well as Mahmoud, to try and find a solution.
Two workarounds have been suggested that would allow the DIR to view only VSO accounts and not 2,800 accounts. One possible way would be for the SSE to hire someone to go through the documents and reveal only funded accounts to Aguilar.
“While that’s OK, if he wants to spend hours and hours on it, that shouldn’t come out of CAPS group pocket to pay for DIR to hire a banking associate,” Plofker said.
Another option would be to code a new level of access within the MyGroups2, the software used to track student spending. However this would also be expensive, and according to Plofker, wouldn’t be a good use of SSE resources.
Everyone interviewed about DIR is in agreement that they want the DIR to function properly, but no solutions have yet proven effective.
“I think it is a problem, and I would love to grant access to DIR if we had that access level,” said Plofker, saying more checks and safety nets are never bad.
“I think the people in charge of the DIR have good intentions, and I wish I could help them out more,” Laufer said.
The Senate will decide at their first meeting back after winter break whether to extend the pilot program for the DIR.