JIM CHLIBOYKO

( h e U PS 3 he announcement came late
§ last week, April 23, that

charges had finally been laid

regarding the money missing,
presumed taken, from the Douglas
College Student Society coffers. But

the consequences of the affair

 

continue to be felt
throughout Douglas
College.
Rhonda Lussier, 32,
former treasurer of the
DCSS (she resigned in
January 1998) was
a a N C e charged by police with
a, both theft over $5000
and fraud over $5000.
According to Constable Carmel Keenan
of the New Westminster Police
Department, if found guilty, Lussier
could face up to ten years in prison.
But Lussier’s actions and the subse-
quent investigation that she inspired
shed light onto the appar-
fe ent poor financial practices
ormer of the DCSS, and cast sus-
picion onto every Douglas
College student politician
whether they were involved
Treasurer or nor.
The mess in the DCSS
office made itself known in
January, a month during
cha rg ed with which the DCSS seemed to
have broken down. It was
during January that many
of the “irregular” cheques
D CSS th eft to representatives are dated,
it was the month during
which Lussier resigned, allegedly
because of illness, and it was the month that culmi-
nated with the controversial firing of DCSS busi-
ness manager Merrilyn Houlihan, largely for alert-
ing the college to the problem of the missing
money. The action, said DCSS President Jaimie
McEvoy, was for betraying the student society and
jeopardizing the day-to-day operations of the

May 1998 Page 18

 

TEU leet (e ce)

DCSS, as the college can withhold fees collected in

the name of the society if it suspects any financial

   
  

irregularities. The winter term soon became a wait-
ing game for the college community, as people wait-
ed for the police investigation to conclude, and then
waited for the audit to finally be released.

What exactly happened with the missing money
is detailed in the audit of DCSS finances per-
formed by Ernst & Young, a document that Keenan

says was used to substantiate charges against
Lussier. The audit, finished earlier in the term, and
dated February 16, quickly became notorious for its
unavailability. The Other Press received a copy of it
last week, and here are the findings.

The audit states, “during our review we noted