SAC Finance audit vindicates IAA

New SAC audit refutes 'DP' audit allegationsNew SAC audit refutes 'DP' audit allegationsthat the group misused $3,492 in SAC funds The Student Activities Council Finance Committee reported last night that the International Affairs Association had not misused SAC funds for the purpose of phone calls, as alleged by The Daily Pennsylvanian. SAC Finance conducted its own audit Tuesday night to assess the validity of DP allegations that the IAA had misused $3,492 in SAC funds. In December, a DP audit found that the IAA may have overspent for printing and duplicating, travel and personal phone calls made from the group's office. The DP's independent audit came in response to a previous SAC Finance audit which vindicated the IAA from allegations of fund misuse made in an Undergraduate Assembly Budgetary Committee audit of the group. Last night, SAC Finance reported that all concerns brought up by the DP had been addressed through the IAA's transfer of $1,200 to SAC last semester. The only issue not covered by this payment was the charge of telephone abuse. According to SAC Finance's report, the IAA had a final deficit of $276.04 in phone calls, which were paid out of non-SAC revenues. This sum covers the alleged $33 phone call misuse alleged by the DP. And the IAA's office expenses, which exceeded SAC grants, were also covered by non-SAC revenues, the report added. SAC Finance concluded that no SAC funds were misappropriated by the IAA. In October, an audit conducted by the UA alleged that the IAA used SAC funding inappropriately for expenses such as taxi rides, extra hotel rooms and car rentals. But SAC Finance refuted the UA findings later that month, vindicating the IAA of any fund misuse. Shapiro said the Finance Committee stands by the findings of its original audit in October, adding that no material has been found to refute its validity. But UA Treasurer and Finance Committee member Steve Schorr, a College sophomore, maintained that the UA audit was not a waste. "None of the discrepancies which the IAA paid for [in the $1,200] would have been discovered if not for the audit," Schorr said. "SAC was paying for these discrepancies before the audit," he added. The failure to fully comprehend the effects of the carryover/deficit process of funding could also have led the UA and the DP to inaccurate conclusions, according to Shapiro. This process allows SAC groups to deduct their debts from their non-SAC revenue. It also allows groups $50 leeway to transfer surpluses in one category of expenditure to a category which ran into debt. Schorr said he is happy that the audit ordeal is over. "I'm glad that the $1,200 has been transferred from the IAA back to SAC to account for all the discrepancies and that the matter has finally been put to rest," Schorr said.

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