Club protests audit by UA

International Affairs Association leaders are claiming that the Undergraduate Assembly Budget Committee is not following proper procedure in its planned audit of the organization. IAA board members -- with the exception of Wharton and Engineering junior Yousef Master -- did not hear about this audit until it was announced in an article in last Wednesday's Daily Pennsylvanian. Master is the vice president and treasurer of the IAA. This is just one of the complaints that College senior Brendan Cahill, the IAA president, has about the way the audit is being conducted. He also said UA Treasurer and College sophomore Steve Schorr, who contacted Master about the audit, only gave the group a day to prepare their records. When the Student Activities Council Finance Committee performs audits, Cahill said, it gives the groups a week to prepare. "The way in which Mr. Schorr has pursued his accusations against us proves he is not familiar with IAA structure," Cahill said. And College senior Steve Ebert, the director general of the IAA, said such an audit by the UA Budget Committee is unprecedented. "In the history of the UA since the 1965 constitution, the UA Budget Committee has never audited a SAC group," he said. Cahill said the IAA has nothing to hide, adding that the group only spends SAC funding on what it is allocated for; all other expenditures are paid for by the club's proceeds. "We are fully confident that we will be exonerated," he said. "That is not the issue we are taking with them. The issue we are taking with them is that they have publically accused us and are not providing substantiated evidence." Ebert had an informal discussion with Schorr about the audit early Monday morning, during which he questioned the budget committee's motives for the audit. But Ebert said the conversation appeased his worries. He said he was convinced that the intent was sincere, and that the committee was just trying to find out the truth. After the discussion, "I was more confident that we would get a fair hearing," he added. But he said he became more concerned after dinner that night, when he said he overhead a conversation at the Class of 1920 Commons between Schorr, UA chair and College senior Lance Rogers and budget committee member Tom Foldesi, a College junior. Ebert said he heard Schorr tell the group that the goal of the audit was to "screw over the IAA" so that they lose funding and recognition. Ebert also alleged that Rogers made an anti-Semitic remark about him. Both Rogers and Schorr deny making such statements, although they did admit to discussing the IAA audit while dining that night. But Cahill and Ebert are now questioning the motives of the UA Budget Committee, accusing the group of being biased. As a result, they approached SAC Finance Monday night, requesting that the committee intervene and take over the auditing process. SAC Finance IAA Liaison Lija Bentley, a College senior, will be conducting her own audit of the group, according to Schorr, a Daily Pennsylvanian sports writer. He added that the budget committee will remain in charge of its own audit. Cahill said the IAA will comply with all of the committee's wishes. "However, we are not convinced that the matter has been handled satisfactorily," he added. "We will pursue the?steps [necessary] to ensure an open auditing process which we feel will exonerate us."