Bummers of University Unite! You have nothing to lose but your reputation!

In order to explain the reasons for contesting the elections for the University Student Council (KSU), Moviment Indipendenti organised a public meeting in the University Quadrangle three days before the election took place. During this meeting we stated that KSU is not transparent, mainly for not publishing detailed accounts of  its finances thereby making it difficult to confirm whether corruption and dabbling with public finances was taking place. This is not quantum physics and the concept is very simple: if you don't publish your accounts, than you might have something to hide. We didn't throw mud at random towards our adversaries because that isn't part of our code of conduct but we were and still are not afraid to analyse the activities of KSU and describe them in detail after they have chosen to come down like thunder on critical university organisations.

Surprisingly in the day that followed, KSU staged a Press Conference declaring that it was not involved in any corruption and that SDM has always served its terms in the Council with a clean attitude. They rushed to the media explaining their innocence similar to a child crying out loud 'IT WASN'T ME!' as soon as someone notices him running away from the vicinity of a broken window. It was then that they made us realize that corruption in KSU was a possibility which should be treated more seriously. Although we knew that the way KSU was operating was being dysfunctional to society especially because it sought to squeeze out critical organisations at University, we never thought that if we spoke on corruption and how it works in theory, KSU members would tremble in fear. Isn't it so obvious? We didn't make one single claim that anyone from KSU was corrupt and if we did so and had nothing to prove it, we would have been taken to court for criminal libel. KSU's immediate reply to the meeting was simply an attack on critical discourse when instead they should have taken note of what we said and published all the accounts and all of the financial details.

What a mess Carl! now clean it up

However this did not happen. As I already stated in an article in the last issue of Ir-Realta', KSU's annual accounts are not accurate since it’s full of blanket statements without any detailed break-downs. The auditors who compiled them admitted that the scope of the audit was limited as the books which were presented to them by KSU had several ''inconsistencies''. But one of the skeletons that KSU is hiding in the closet is the Student Opportunity Fund (SOF). During the meeting we also mentioned the fact that we do not know how these funds are being given out and what for. Until now KSU has not published any detailed accounts of this Fund.

Such a Fund must necessarily be made transparent not only because it can give rise to great leverage for nepotism, but because in our local context its purpose is also vague and ambiguous. Its purpose first of all is not to help students financially because many students at University have parents who are well-off and shower their children with money and gifts including cars as soon as they get their driving license so most of them aren't actually in need of any financial help. If funds are selectively given to University students who come from poor backgrounds and are entwined in serious social problems, and these are in a minority, than the funds would be justified. But not even the greatest philosopher can justify the handing out of free money from public funds to people who don't need it. This is why the SOF smacks of clientalism. Students don't remember the days, when you had to ask permission from a minister to get a coloured-television, but lo and behold: clientalism in the University of Malta is now alive and kicking.

So during the election campaign we asked for KSU to hand us out all the detailed financial accounts of the SOF. We asked to have a list of who got the money and why they got it. It's only fair that in modern democracies citizens should know where public money goes and it's quite conventional in European states to give out detailed public accounts of all their finances. However, the pro-PN and pro-European Union members of KSU, like European values only from a distance, similar to a man who admires a stripper while he's sitting down and drinking at the bar. KSU sent us the list of names of those who got the money and the amount which was prescribed to them. However they did not send us details of why these people were granted the money. This list has until now not been published.

Now, a short analysis of these names will reveal that most of them are familiar with KSU, SDM, and PN. Now, KSU have said that only 35 students have applied for funds and the applications were all accepted! There are two problems that arise from this statistic if KSU is telling the truth. First of all if most of the students who have applied for funds were friends or friends of friends is a sign that the Fund was not promoted well to students and most students didn't know about it. Secondly, the fact that all of the applications were accepted gives the wrong impression that all of them were in need of buying educational material which they couldn't afford and hence were financially supported by KSU. If at least one application would have been refused than the statistic would give the impression that some students applied for the funds but weren't liable to receive them because they wouldn't have been used for educational purposes. Thus according to KSU all of the applications were honest.

Thus we undertook the task to try and discover where has the money went, who really got it and why? First of all let's pick from the list, the names of students which are identical to well known students who militate with SDM and PN

Edward Cachia Zammit – SDM Activist

Gianluca Bezzina – Brother of Samaria Bezzina, who was the Culture and Entertainment Co-Ordinator of KSU in 2009.

James Psaila – SDM Activist.

Janet Barthet – Remember the girl who was shouting with saliva belching against the supporters of the Proportional Representation proposal during this year's AGM? She is also a PN activist.

Krissy Borg – Ex-KSU Treasurer (SDM)

Martina Galea – Now Currently KSU Treasurer

Matthew Agius – Ex-Secretary General of KSU (SDM) and PN local Councillor

Roberta Avellino – Ex-KSU President (SDM)

Simon Mifsud – SDM activist

Come on Simon get the groove on for SDM

I am not a superstitious person and when a set of names reveal trends and circles, it's very hard to believe in coincidence. But let's try and group the list of names so as to try and understand for what were the funds allocated to.

 

A group of Architecture Students who went to Firenze all seem to have got 100 Euro each from the SOF and these are:

 

The Association of Students of Commercial Studies have also went for a trip to London and they all received the same amount of 318.33 Euro each. These are:

 

ASCS Members in London (not the most politically indepndent organisation on Campus)

Two students from AISEC have also received the same amount of money each and these were Edward Cachia Zammit and Alexia Baldachino who each received the sum of 260.62 Euro.

 

It can hardly be a coincidence that the same students who went to a trip together, received the same amount of money for a different project so the money has undoubtedly went for their trip. Now of course no one denies that having educational experiences and going to conferences and seminars in other countries in other countries (however, what is educational to some students might not be for others) is enriching, but if KSU is turning the SOF as a way to have some extra cash for a trip than the Fund smacks of political opportunism and classical Maltese nepotism. A student who has the money to travel to conference but wants some extra cash from KSU to fund a part of the trip would be really cheeky. In Maltese we say wiccek u sormok l-istess!

 

In conclusion to this I must say that the role of the SOF is not to help students but to help SDM get votes and to make the Friends happy and satisfied with a piece of the pie. After all they work hard to get them elected. SDM, Għalik!

 

(All pictures were downloaded from Facebook)