- At the CFS-BC Executive Committee meeting held last weekend, members were informed that the audited financial statements of the organization for 2005 and 2006 are still not available for approval. (At the February 2007 meeting, we had been informed that the 2005 statements were almost completed, and copies would be sent to all member student associations within three weeks.) Scott Payne, BC Chairperson, said that the auditor, Charlie Miller of Tompkins, Wozny, Miller, was not prioritising the CFS-BC audit as he was devoting the majority of his time to establishing his own firm.
- At the same meeting, members were informed that the audited financial statements of the Douglas Students' Union for 2005 and 2006 are also not completed, despite the Supreme Court appointment of Marne Jensen (University of Victoria Students' Society [UVSS] General Manager) as Receiver-Manager. I have received no explanation for why these statements are not complete. The Douglas Students' Union is also audited by Tompkins, Wozny, Miller.
In her Affidavit sworn October 25, 2006, Marne Jensen said: "I expect to be in a position to forward the remaining financial documents to Calvin Tompkins so that the audit for the fiscal year 2005 can be completed within the next 6 - 8 weeks, at which time the society will be in compliance with the College and Institute Act" (para. 12). Similarly, in his Affidavit sworn October 31, 2006, Calvin Tompkins said: "In order to complete the 2005 financial statements we still require the society's books to be written up and reconciled for at least the first 6 months of the 2006 fiscal year, and a list of other required documentation has been provided to the DSU. As soon as we have that information we expect to be able to complete the 2005 financial statements within 2 - 3 weeks."
- As the Douglas Students' Union's contact page indicates, Ms. Jensen as hired Ben Johnson as her assistant. Mr. Johnson was the Chief Electoral Officer of the UVSS in 2006. In addition, I have been informed that at least two individuals associated with the UVSS have been appointed to substitute for Mr. Johnson on days when he was not available: Naomi Devine and Penny Beames. (My sources tell me that Ms. Devine and Ms. Beames have only worked a couple of days each at the DSU.)
Naomi Devine, a director of the UVic Sustainability Project, was an unsuccessful candidate for UVSS Director in the 2006 election that Mr. Johnson oversaw (and a successful candidate for Student Senator).
Penny Beames was the (ultimately) candidate for Chairperson of the UVSS in the 2006 election. Thus, it would appear that she and Ms. Jensen are in the peculiar position of being each other's supervisors - albeit at two different students' unions, on different sides of the Georgia Straight. (Ms. Beames' term as Chairperson ends very shortly.)
- My sources have also told me that the Malaspina Students' Union has loaned $20,000 to the Douglas Students' Union, without signed documentation. (The Malaspina Students' Union won the competition to host the 2007 conference of the Federation of Canadian Student Leaders. However, their General Manager was unable to give me any meaningful information concerning the details of this conference.)
Labels: cfs, douglas, victoria
34 Comments:
Hmmmm...very interesting...the financial statments at the Simon Fraser Student Society are audited by the same company Tompkins Wozney and year after year after year the audit is completed in an efficient and timely manner within 2 months of the fiscal year end, yet, for some "unknown" reason, CFS-BC and DSU can't get an audit done 3 years after a year end...
This leads me to believe that either:
1) The person(s) doing the books at CFS-BC and DSU don't have a christly clue as to what they are doing
2) CFS-BC and DSU have somehow lost their telephone connection to Tompkins Wozney in order to call them and ask/tell/demand they come in to conduct an audit
3) Scott Payne and Joey Hanson have been secretly abducted by aliens and the aliens are using their bodies as vessels to create confusion and anarchy in the student union movements bookkeeping practices
Could it be that this rabbit hole goes deeper than we thought?
The excuse that the professionals the CFS hired to do the audit arent doing it is pretty weak...
Naomi Devine was acclaimed to Senate. She withdrew her name from Senate nominations this year after the candidates were announced.
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Mmm bop, ba du ba dop
Ba du ba dop, Du be du ba du be dop
Du be dop, ah, doo. Yeah
This is the kind of conduct that grows out of the UVSS and the CFS.
Over the last 20 years, how many BC-CFS chairpersons were from UVic?
It always seems to be some UVSS executive hack who could not run again due to term limits.
All I have to say is WTF!
Who does the CFS accountable to? Or who do they report to? Does anyone know?
As for the DSU, clearly not enough people who have been in "power" care about the students of the college. How many more colleges have given them money? How many more CFS locals do they owe money to?
And may I say....... Since when are student associations BANKS?! If it looks like a duck, acts like a duck, it probably is a duck!
Now all we need to do is some how find a way for students to pay attention to where their money is going..... Any suggestions?!
Ooops I meant to say who IS the CFS accountable to? Serves me right for not proofreading.
it would be neat for joey or erin to get the accounting firm's side of the story ...
Where is the proof of the Malaspina loan? I don't doubt it happened, those incestuous CFSr's can justify any illegal action. I'd just like to know where the info came from.
And does anybody still wonder how Christa Peters kept her job, what with her involvement in DSU's shady dealings?
And has ANYBODY heard ANYTHING about the Federation of Canadian Students conference? Is it going on or not?
There was no loan from Malaspina in the foresnic audit (posted with the DSU court hearings documents).
So it either pre-dates the audit (before their funds were cut off (not likely), post-dates the audit (in which case surely they got an agreement following the auditors comments????), or does not exist.
Interesting.
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I would caution people not to make false and defamatory attacks against individuals here. If you don't like their politics so be it, but Marne Jensen is a professional. Besides working for a BC Cabinet Minister, she has overseen the UVSS for close to ten years. You may not like the political affiliations it has taken but it rebounded financially under her stewardship. The bar is functional, the finances are in order there.
You people place too much emphasis on certain business credentials. All the people at Enron had MBAs I am sure and look where it got them in terms of integrity. I am not suggesting that people with no business background should do audits, but that's why non-profits hire external auditing firms. Student unions are non-profit organizations, and most other organizations of the like which offer advocacy and services to their members - whether it is the Teachers' Federation, or Amnesty International or the Fraser Institute have managers who come from a political background rather than an accounting background.
I don't know if it's true that Marne Jensen never finished her degree or not, but do you think 2 or 3 more classes at UVic would really change her skill set to be this receiver-manager at DSU? Do you really think it's a problem to have a UVSS chairperson who studied English?
The point really is that she shouldn't have been appointed the receiver in the first place. Whoever was asleep at the wheel at the Douglas college administration should wake up and realize they've made a mistake appointing her.
Let's get real. She is a CFS hack. Joey Hanson is a CFS hack who got the DSU in this mess in the first place. Who better to look out for the CFS interests at DSU than a CFS hack.
Now, even if she weren't a CFS hack, then where are the financial statements and audit. She promised 6 months ago that they'd be ready in 2 months. According to my calculations, that's 4 months late for an audit already 3 years late.
The DSU needs a hands on person to go in there and clean up their accounting practices and get there books up to date. Has she rolled up her sleeves and done this? Does she know the difference between a debit and a credit? Does she even know how to use accounting software? Why has she brought in people from UVIC who also don't seem to have any accounting background (but do they have CFS ties?)
It would be nice to know, but fat chance of ever getting an answer.
Just to clarify.....It was not Douglas College Administrators who put Marne there.
You can thank the DSU and CFS. Both lawyers in there presentation to the judge wanted Marne. Douglas College Admin wanted Deloitte & Touche. It was Don Crane and the CFS lawyer that said they would only agree to a receiver if it was Marne.
Also, another point of clarification, the biggest reason the judge appointed Marne was due to cost; Deloitte and Touche were more expensive per day. I think with the extra time she has taken to produce the documents she's become just as expensive as the other group.
Perhaps it would be more fair to say you can blame the judge.
As anonymous points out, Douglas College had their say, as did the union, according to all the documents posted on this site, as did the CFS and the DSU, but the judge made the call.
And really, the total fiasco goes back to the original mismanagement, not to Marne, or even the CFS dispite their loan and their connections to individuals involved.
I agree that it would have been better--even if one did pay more-- to have a neutral party set it all up, but I don't think anyone can claim Marnie is dishonest. Marnie might be a hack but I am sure she will get things in order eventually.
Her job wouldnt be to expose all the screw ups of CFS hacks to public scruitiny anyway--even an auditor wouldn't be doing that publicly (remember the forensic audit wasn't public--until the court made it public). Her job is to get the student union running efficiently and give advice privately.
What is this stuff about a court case with Translink, is Tranlink suing the CFS too?
No Translink refused to post the "Rock the Vote" ads on buses because they said they were partisan.
CFS sued them.
I actually think the CFS was right on this one--you can point to all sorts of partisan behaviours by the CFS but those campaign ads simply encouraged students to vote.
I covered the Translink story last week here: http://www.macleans.ca/education/postsecondary/article.jsp?content=20070425_124126_5548
Does Joey Coleman blog for Maclean's now?
Joey Coleman Blogs for the people, DUDE!
Also, on macleans.ca
Yes, I blog over at Maclean's these days. Other than the URL and some professionalism, nothing changed.
Basically, the slowdown is a reflection of it being the end of the year. I had the same slowdown last year, unlike last year, this will not be a great slowdown. I pretty much covered nothing but McMaster stuff from April till the SFSS situation began in August.
The translink post was a deflection.
Fact, Marne Jensen created the initial debt of the UVSS as the Director of Finance.
Fact, Marne was a vocal CFS supporter.
I believe she also served as a paid CFS rep prior to receiving her patronage appointment with the NDP Government as a reward for using student funds to support the NDP.
Marnie Jensen appointed Ben Johnson election officer for the UVSS in 2006 and vocal CFS opponent Mike Watters was 'disqualified' under questionable circumstances for the second year in a row. Then Marnie rewards Johnson by giving him a CFS appointment as her assistant in the DSU audit?
Is Marne the General Manager at UVSS, or what?
Wild University of Victoria party leads to $10,000 fine:
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=accdb2a5-f24f-427c-97dc-8d4652bb5fe2&k=39290
I covered it over at Maclean's the day before, more extensively, and have the link to the ruling:
http://www.macleans.ca/education/postsecondary/article.jsp?content=20070503_152641_5440
"...over at Maclean's..."
OKAY, we get it!
Newsflash: Joey Coleman is a self-promoting troll.
Cover that over at Maclean's.
Self-promotion would be if he just randomly posted this shit. People talk about it and then it points them to coverage...
how about your anti-Joey trolling?
I think there is a point there, I did not use my best judgement in how I stated that last comment. I guess I still think of myself as out to get mainstream media. I know am part of the evil MSM.
I really should be commenting on the post.
I am sadly not surprised to learn that the statements are still not done.
I agree the excuse is weak, and questionable. If the audit is not doing their job, then why has the CFS not pursued legal action? We all know that the CFS uses speed dial to call their lawyers, if they do not have a red telephone connection in place.
I am concerned by the appearance of conflict in all of this.
The CFS needs to come clean on the DSU matter and it needs to put in place stricter rules about the appearance of conflict of interest
Titus, keep up the good work!
I really don't see the connection between the UVSS getting students too drunk and Marne Jensen. The executive director of a student union isn't responsible for monitoring the lineups outside the bar for alcohol consumption; that is the job of the bar managers.
Yes it seems like this wasn't handled well, but UVSS is hardly alone in this. Other student bars have been shut down, regardless of the politics of the staff of the SU.
Relationship.....
She is responsible for training, general management of the Student Union. It is her job to know what is going on; this happened on her watch!
$10,000 is a lot of money for the students of UVIC to be giving away.
And your argument about other Student pubs being shut down. I don't think students of UVIC really care about other Student pubs.
Maybe with the negative light on another student union in BC more people will pay attention to what is going on with students money.
Not a executive director of a student union but the General Manager of the Student Union Building with the ultimate staff position in charge of the Business Operations.
And it's the UVic Student Society because dedicated students stopped them from renaming the Society from the AMS to the Student Union at several AGMs as the IS people in charge wanted to pretend the society was a real union.
Yawn. This blog is growing progressively less and less interesting as it gets more and more narrow and the comments try to read further and further into the little bits of information given.
Yawn. This blog is growing progressively less and less interesting as it gets more and more narrow and the comments try to read further and further into the little bits of information given.
And what a great contribution you've made, twice!
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