by Doug Ausman

UVSS members deserve far better from their elected executives and general manager.

Tim Hanson’s Dec. 4 Martlet story, “Students’ Society posts $82,402 surplus,” states that “Former SUB General Manager Doug Ausman was fired for not properly dealing with Vivek Sharma, the former SUB business manager allegedly responsible for appropriating around $30,000 from the UVSS.”

Current UVSS General Manager Marne Jensen is quoted as saying, “…My predecessor wasn’t exactly watching the chicken coop. “

I was her predecessor.

As UVSS Business Operations Manager over 2000–2001, Vivek Sharma duped me, UVSS’s elected executives, including Chairperson Jaime Matten, and many others with his convincing explanations and reports on how well the various businesses in the SUB were operating and the numerous great deals he had arranged for the UVSS with suppliers.

Ultimately, many of his explanations and reports were found to be utterly untrue. He defrauded one or more suppliers by convincing them he had paid for certain equipment for the SUB and they should reimburse him or a company he controlled. Sharma then pocketed the money.

On Dec. 17, 2003 Mr. Sharma pleaded guilty to fraud charges and was sentenced.

I was one of the prosecution’s key witnesses. In 2001 I initially identified the details of the two frauds Mr. Sharma ultimately pleaded guilty to. At that time I fully outlined my findings to the UVSS executives and to the finance committee. The police were called in and I worked with the UVSS auditor until I was fired by the then-Board of Directors upon recommendation of the elected executives.

I have been very pleased to do my part over the past two years to see justice done, which includes some financial restitution to the UVSS ordered of Mr. Sharma in his court sentencing.

Any truly effective senior manager and executives of a sizeable organization know they must delegate to, and trust, those managers who report to them in order to run an organization effectively. A general manager cannot double-check every activity and transaction a senior manager like Sharma undertakes.

However, I held him accountable by requiring weekly verbal and written reports from him to me and to the board’s finance committee.

I believed him.

They believed him too. Vivek Sharma betrayed our trust.

The then-executives, typical of most politicians, sought an employee-scapegoat so that they would not have to bear their portion of the heat as to why they accepted Sharma’s explanations and reports, and why they trusted him as much as I did.

Their scapegoat was me.

I became General Manager in March 1997 through full, open, recruitment competition.

The enlightened board of directors sought an experienced general manager to bring a more businesslike approach to management of the SUB, to address the series of money-losing years of operations which resulted in an over $500,000 accumulated deficit, and to establish a positive working relationship with the UVic administration for the overall benefit of UVSS members.

Over the following three years, I led the UVSS management in establishing a productive relationship with the UVic administration and to three consecutive years of financial surpluses.

The accumulated deficit was reduced to almost $300,000. The following year, Mr. Sharma’s shenanigans caused that accumulated deficit to return to above its former $500,000 level.

If the accumulated deficit or “debt” of the UVSS has increased several hundred thousand dollars to about $1 million as a result of further years of operating deficits, that’s the responsibility of the general manager and elected executives who followed my departure.

It is misleading for current General Manager Marne Jensen to indicate to the media that the $1 million in UVSS debt is “…something she chalks up to previous management. “

UVSS members deserve far better from a former NDP ministerial assistant hired to the UVSS by the then-chairperson because of their connections, and appointed as my successor without the key minimum qualification required of previous UVSS general managers as comptroller: an accounting designation.

UVSS members also deserve far better from their elected executives, whose first priorities are broad national and international social, political and labour issues, and personal career progression to the Canadian Federation of Students’ executive positions. These priorities are placed ahead of the fundamental reason for the UVSS’s very existence: to focus primarily on providing excellent services to its members on the UVic campus. Isn’t that what members’ millions of dollars in annual dues and fees are for?

Vivek Sharma pleaded guilty to two fraud charges: $4,000 involving Felicita’s patio furniture, and $10,000 involving a computer system for SUB bookstore. Other charges were dropped in exchange for the two guilty pleas. He was sentenced to a conditional sentence of eight months, including six months of house arrest, and an additional one-year probation; 80 hours community service; and restitution to the UVSS in the amount of $14,000. No jail time, but a criminal record.