This year’s Executive Cabinet is ready to disclose how it spent its money.
The expenditure information of the cabinet will appear on the Web site of the Associated Students of the University of Utah at 5 p.m. today. The information posted online will identify each expenditure, and include a narrative written by each Executive Cabinet member explaining what programs and purposes the $54,012 spent by the cabinet served.
The expenditures listed and explained on the Web site only list how Executive Cabinet funds were spent, and does not reflect the full $1 million ASUU had to budget with this year. The other expenditures include office operating expenses for ASUU and the money the organization gives to other departments and student groups, notably the Presenter’s Office, which received a hefty $390,000 this year.
The Executive Cabinet members have not been made accountable in years past, according to Ben Lowe, ASUU president.
“We want to increase the accountability of ASUU to the students,” Lowe said. “The greatest accountability should be to where we are using their fees.”
The idea of publicizing cabinet expenditures, a procedure colloquially referred to as truth in funding, was one of the campaign promises Lowe and Vice President Mike Nelson made to students while seeking office.
The Student Senate and General Assembly recently added a provision to Redbook, the policy manual of ASUU, demanding that all future administrations also publicize the expenditures of their cabinet members.
Lowe believes that because the cabinet members this year knew they would be expected to explain how they spent money, they were more careful with ASUU funds than prior cabinets.
“I think they were used more wisely than they had been in the past,” he said. “Hopefully this can continue to provide accountability in the future.”
Although Lowe thinks cabinet members spent the funds wisely, he thinks there are places where they were not spent as well as they could have been, particularly in sending students to conferences.
The spending breakdown lists a total of $4,623.29 spent to send members to conferences, including a conference the Development Office participated in designed to teach them how to raise money.
The budget breakdowns also list $5,455.44 spent on telephones. This includes the three cell phones ASUU provides for the president, vice president and chief of staff.
Another big category on the list of cabinet expenditures was office supplies ASUU members used to run the organization. The cabinet reported $4,383.79 spent for these supplies, and the attorney general, who had an operating fund of $100 only spent money on copies, which came to a grand total of $9.85. The Student Services board also had few expenditures, the two-line breakdown shows the board spent $15 on copies and $38 on refreshments.
Combined, the entire cabinet lists $1,259.76 spent to provide refreshments for their committee meetings and to help publicize certain ASUU programs. Redbook’s financial policies and procedures state that it is generally not the policy of ASUU to fund food for committee meetings.
The organization also spent $4,677 advertising the events and programs put on by cabinet members. The rest of the expenses listed in the funding breakdowns largely went to ASUU events such as the voter registration drive, family fun days, the Student Choice Awards ceremony, campus walks, homecoming events and the candle light vigil held after Sept. 11.
“I’m really impressed by the stewardship of the officers in spending student funds,” said George Lindsey, ASUU accountant, who compiled the numbers that will be posted on the Web site. “This is only the Executive Cabinet, which is a small chunk of the total budget.”