THIS semester, students paid P440.45 for the Students Activities Fee. Immediately, roughly 10% of this allocation is reserved for the Sanggunian ng mga Mag-aaral ng Paaralang Loyola (Sanggu).

Meanwhile, the rest of the student organizations—all 47 of them—receive anywhere from 35% to 40% of the said allocation. The remaining percentage is allotted for contingencies, according to Office of Student Affairs (OSA) Director Christopher Castillo.

How is the 10% of your P440.45 allocated?

Avoiding the red tape

Unlike other orgs, which receive a fixed amount of P15,000 per semester, Sanggu’s proposed budget for this school year is P410,000. This amount is the aggregate expense projections of the different school boards’ secretary-treasurers, along with other Sanggu-led departments such as the Department of Student Welfare and Services and the Department of Student Leadership Development.

Finance Officer Westin Contreras (IV BSM AMF) collects the spending projections of Sanggu’s different branches then prepares the final budget proposal. This is then submitted for approval to the administration and OSA.

According to Castillo, OSA assesses the budget by looking into its historicity, its alignment with Sanggu’s vision, and frugality.

If the proposal does not meet OSA’s standards, Castillo directly talks to the officers to make things faster and to avoid “red tape” about any major changes that should take place.

“I purposely give them a free hand, an independence to put [the budget] together,” says Castillo.

“If I’m the one always present there and telling them what to do, then they’re not a Sanggunian… I am there to mostly guide them and give them some direction at the start.”

Castillo says, however, that OSA has yet to set up any formal budget allocation training programs, among other position-specific seminars. “What we bank on is that the candidates or the current finance officer is already versed sufficiently in making those projections.”

He also says that these trainings are to be made available next year. Though there are already prototypes of these seminars, most of them were experimental and catered to the accredited orgs.

Changing systems

While its proposed budget is different from orgs, Sanggu’s way of managing it isn’t any different. According to Contreras, Sanggu has functioned for the past two years through reimbursements, which is the Central Accounting Office’s process.

When purchasing in small amounts, Sanggu members either use their own money then have it reimbursed or access their funds through Sanggu’s Deposit Credit Balance (DCB) account. DCB accounts contain all gifts, donations, grants, and fees received by an organization through the University. For bigger purchases, OSA assists Sanggu with the transaction.

This system, however, was just formally implemented last school year. Also, over the past two years, some changes in the accounting system have been introduced to make it more efficient.

This is because of the problem that has risen from the external bank accounts that student orgs have maintained. With some of the money not credited to the orgs’ respective Ateneo-owned accounts, books ended up not matching.

The school has since required Sanggu and other orgs to store their funds in a DCB account.

Another change made is the subsidy available to student organizations generally used for leadership training events for their members. The maximum allocation is P31,500 per semester, covering planning, evaluation, and training seminars for the orgs’ officers and members.

Also, the revolving fund for other orgs has also been increased to P15,000 from P5,000 so more organizations could utilize it. This fund is used when they are in need of a small amount of cash, usually below P1,000. they can borrow from OSA and then pay back the next day with the receipt and petty cash voucher to credit to their DCB account.

Selective project grants

According to Castillo, this year also ushered in the introduction of a selective project grants system open for all orgs. A panel would screen the applicants whose proposed projects were most noteworthy. Those projects centered on spirituality, membership, and leadership development are the ones favored by OSA.

“It’s not that we have money to give away. It’s not that at all,” he says. “It’s mostly that we want to support the efforts that are worth supporting but are somewhat having difficulty raising [their] own funding.”

Besides these means, Sanggu gets money through sponsorships. “We operate under the assumption that we don’t have money,” says Sanggu member Carl* in a mix of Filipino and English. According to him, this money is most likely used to make Sanggu events better or to attend to emergency cases.

He also says that, as far as the different schools are concerned, they employ different strategies to generate money. While Sanggu members from other schools don’t receive money for themselves, those from the School of Management receive a 10% cut from their marketing sponsors.

“Transparent”

“Aside from publishing the expenditures this year [which can be found on Sanggu’s website], I think we have kept our expenses at a minimum. I have been entertaining those who have been asking for our ledger… I’ve been telling them about our budget,” says Contreras.

The financial statements are also forwarded to the Student Judicial Council (SJC) who in turn released it to the public through its newsletter. As for the response, Contreras says that he has yet to receive any complaints from the SJC.

“I think this year’s Sanggu has improved a lot, considering all that they’ve had to learn from their predecessors, especially in terms of transparency,” says Geanelle Abad (III BS CTM), a volunteer for Sanggu’s Office of the Secretary-General.

Abad admits however, that while she saw the year-end financial report in the Sanggu website, she says that she “didn’t really take time to read it through it.” Meanwhile, Contreras says that while the books are made public, those who ask to see the books are very few.

“I don’t think Sanggu is very transparent,” says Carl. “It only shows what it wants to show.” According to him, while minutes are recorded during official meetings, there are the more informal ones that aren’t recorded.

As far as squandering the budget’s extra money is concerned, however, he says that it’s unlikely for Sanggu to commit this. According to him, Sanggu doesn’t really have the cash on hand.

Nevertheless, Castillo lauds Sanggu’s efforts. He believes, however, that there is still more that the student government has to work on. He adds that there is a need to fine-tune a system so that the public would immediately acquire the information they need to know while keeping it fresh and accurate.

“The desire for [transparency] and the actual practicing of it is not a question… It’s present, it’s good. What is not available though is a more systematic way of really doing it.”

Meanwhile, Carl believes that, Sanggu’s managing of the budget, as well as the division of money among the different schools, is fair. He says that it really trains them to negotiate with people from the corporate world. “It’s more of developing the skill rather than the money itself,” he says in a mix of Filipino and English. “But, we still know that [providing quality Sanggu events] is important.“

*Name has been changed to protect the individual.
**With a report from Frances Bea C. Cupin

How Transparent Sanggu Should Be

Financial Statements
Article VII Sec. 2 D8 states that the Finance Officer must “render a financial statement of the Sanggunian every semester to the Student Body and to make public monthly reports on its expenditures.”

Open for all
Article XVI Section 4 states that, “All books of account of the Sanggunian shall be open to the Student Body at all times.”

Enter the SJC
Article XVI Sec. 5 states ¬that, “All expenditures and accounts of the Sanggunian shall be examined by the Student Judicial Court 14 days before the end of the first semester, and at the end of the second semester, 14 days before the term of office of the Sanggunian officers expires.”

No solicitations here
Article XVI Section 7 states that, “The Sanggunian may neither solicit nor receive funds or financial contribution from political entities.”

Data taken from The 2005 Constitution of the Undergraduate Students of Ateneo de Manila Loyola Schools