On January 21st, VUSAC released a statement on their Facebook page which revealed that $500 went missing from the ticket sales cashbox for Code Red, this year’s semi-formal. In the released statement, the Council expressed that they will continue to work on stronger accountability policies for ticket sales.
The matter was discussed at VUSAC’s meeting on January 20th. After ticket sales for Code Red had concluded, Scarlet and Gold Commissioner Zahavah Kay placed the cashbox with the cashbox for printer sales inside of a cabinet.
Kay had intended to leave the cashbox inside the co-president’s office, but no one who had access to the office (Co-Presidents, Rahul Christofferson and Stuart Norton, and Finance Chair, Nicole Gumapac) were present at the time.
The following day, Kay was able to recognize that money had been visibly taken from the cashbox.
A report for the missing money was filled late November by Kay and investigated by acting Finance Chair Peter Huycke and Vice President External Steve Warner. The investigation concluded that approximately $500 was missing from the expected approximate-amount of $1,600 from ticket sales.
VUSAC told The Strand that they currently remain uncertain of how much was stolen, due to discrepancies in tracking sales. The investigation turned up a discovery that a number of tickets were distributed, but not clearly recorded.
The knowledge of the missing funds was not revealed to the VUSAC Co-Presidents until the middle of December.
Without an active Finance Chair, the Council was not able to conduct a timely audit and investigation. VUSAC states that “the investigation thus had to be put off until the new year and was complete in time for the council meeting at which its results were announced.”
In their Facebook post, VUSAC stated that “because of the number of students both on and outside of council who have access to the VUSAC office, we are unable to determine any other details at this time”
The council is continuing to employ new ticket sales policies, which are set to include a more consistent and thorough record-keeping, more frequent cash deposits into a secure safe, and safer storage of cash boxes.
VUSAC stated in their Facebook post, “We will continue, as always, to strive to maintain the trust of Victoria College students.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the investigation was conducted by former VUSAC Finance Chair Nicole Gumapac and Vice President, External Steve Warner. The investigation was conducted by acting Finance Chair Peter Huycke and Warner. It also incorrectly stated that the reason the missing funds were not revealed to VUSAC Co-Presidents Stuart Norton and Rahul Christoffersen was due to the judiciary being out of the province, which was not the case.
