On January 20, the Victoria University Student Administrative Council (VUSAC) made a surprising discovery when its finance chair, Eli Bourassa, received a statement from an overseas bank. The statement revealed the existence of an account containing $13,179.82 that apparently had remained untouched for over five years.
“I initially thought that it was a scam,” said Bourassa. The account was with ING — a British bank — and was linked to the TD account currently used by the VUSAC. “Due to scam possibilities, the bank couldn’t provide us any information on who created the account and when it was opened. However, as the account was linked to our current TD account, we were able to access the money by providing information on the TD account. Two days later, the money was transferred out of the ING account, which we subsequently closed,” explained Bourassa. He speculated that the account could have been created in accordance with an old VUSAC policy, which emphasized the necessity of saving $2,000 as a budget buffer. Despite examining past finance reports, budget statements, and other institutional records, there has been no solution found as to how or why the account has existed unknown for so long.
According to their semi-annual report, the VUSAC has projected spending for the 2013–2014 school year to come to $90,527, which is approximately $8,000 higher than their projected revenue of $82,377. However, the deficit is based on several worst-case hypothetical situations, such as having no incoming revenue for the year 2014, and assumes that every club will spend the entire budget allotted to them. The VUSAC had already made several spending cuts that have reduced the difference by $1,500 and, combined with the sudden money discovery, expects a surplus of a minimum of $6,000 by the end of the year.
