News

At least $750 000 has been misappropriated by former members of the Whitireia Polytechnic Students' Association’s Executive, the Dominion Post reported last week. The scale of the fraud has left members outraged and the Association struggling to remain solvent.

A professional audit of the Association’s accounts has shown that the former Executive members effectively used the association’s funds as their private piggybank. Expenses amounting to tens of thousands of dollars were claimed for everything from family accommodation, to an iPod and dock. One Executive member spent over $5000 on mobile broadband services, while a $25 000 phone bill is yet to be paid. Other missing funds have not yet been traced, but include a single withdrawal of $20 000 in cash.
   Former Association President Loretta Ryder appears to have been the chief beneficiary of the free-spending Executive. In one year she was paid a salary of $45 000, a bonus of $10 000, and received an unexplained cash transfer of $11 972. She was also reimbursed thousands of dollars for expenses for which no receipts were provided. 
   An extraordinary meeting of the Association was called, at which auditor Imran Kamal told the gathering: "This is one of the most difficult audits I have been involved with ... I don't think the Association is solvent.” Membership of the Association is compulsory, and all students enrolled at the Polytechnic paid an automatic fee of $135 each year.
   The scandal has provided ammunition to the supporters of Voluntary Student Membership (VSM), who have claimed that such a fraud would be unlikely to take place under VSM. However, the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations has rubbished these claims. “While it is blatantly clear that WISA has failed its members, it would be wrong to imply one example as representative of all students’ associations.”
   When quizzed about whether she was planning anything similar to the Whitireia fraud, newly re-elected OUSA President Harriet Geoghegan said “God no,” before adding “I think its terrible, fraud from an organisation that is designed to help students is like kicking them when their down.”
   Geoghegan points to the numerous checks and balances that OUSA has in place, including an elected Financial Services Officer, and the General Manager who is also heavily involved in the budgeting process. Geoghegan receives a $30,000 honorarium each year. The OUSA President’s job comes with a credit card that is only for use on things that have already been budgeted for.