UPDATED With KSU Statement: Annual Room Allocation Report sparks controversy as claims of ‘defamation’ are made
Feelings of disbelief and shock were raised this Monday, when KSU secretary general Thomas Bugeja sent an e-mail to all student organisations regarding point allocation in the annual Room Allocation Report; a report, which as student organisations are well aware of, is of great importance for the forthcoming scholastic year.
The email claimed that this year, no points were to be allocated for KPS attendenance, since ‘no records of the KPS meeting attendance for the year 2011-2012′ were available, therefore there was no proof of attendance. In this message on behalf of KSU, Bugeja claims that ‘extensive correspondence’ with Ex-Social Policy Commissioners Abigail Cremona and Isabelle Camilleri had been made, yet without yielding any results, and allegedly blaming the pair for the lack of records.
Insiter Online has however discovered a different side to the story. When contacted, Abigail Cremona declared that she had handed over a CD and several hard copies containing the aforemenioned records to then KPS co-ordinator Anton Abela. She found Mr. Bugeja’s response quite baffling, especially since both former KSU president Stefan Balzan and current president Mario Cachia were present at the moment when she handed over the KPS attendence records. Contrary to what the e-mail says, Ms. Cremona points out that none of the room allocation board members had ‘bothered’ to contact her with regards to this issue.
Ms. Cremona confided that not only was she offended, but also ‘…hurt that someone of that calibre (KSU’s Secretary General), went about it in that manner. They’re just blaming two people out of the blue. I mainly feel sorry for the organisations. The CONF board, headed by Mr. Bugeja, cannot appreciate the effort made by the organizations to attend KPS meetings, as they did not bother to look further into what happened with the said attendance sheets.’ She then described Mr. Bugeja’s e-mail as ‘Malafama’ (defamation).
When asked for a comment, Isabelle Camilleri backed up Ms Cremona’s statements, asserting that ‘…after Abigail gave us the attendence sheets, Anton Abela (former KPS co-ordinator) and I agreed that he was to be in charge of taking care of the attendence. After all it is his job to do so as stated in the KSU statute.’ Indeed, section 27, article 4 of the said statute states that the KPS co-ordinator shall be responsible for the taking of minutes and ‘for collecting any information necessary along with all the relevant regulations’.
Evidently annoyed, Ms. Camilleri continued, ‘is it possible that they (KSU) don’t even know the statute? Why didn’t they even mention the KPS co-ordinator’s responsibility?’ When asked to disclose more details on Anton Abela’s role, she claimed that Mr. Abela’s main responsibilities were to take down KPS’ minutes and attendence, whilst also taking care of Career’s Convention. When pressed for her opinion on the ommitance of points from the report, she added that ‘certain members on the room allocation board never wrote a CONF report in their life. Abigail and myself know how much effort it takes to fill one in. They (organsations) all made an effort to attend and it’s unfair they weren’t even awarded the points’.
UPDATED: When contacted by Insiter Online, Mr. Bugeja, on behalf of KSU, reiterated that ‘whilst correcting the section in the Room Allocations Report awarding marks for KPS meetings attended, the Board contacted the 2011-12 KPS Office forward the attendance list for the said meetings. After speaking to both Commissioners and the KPS Coordinator, the Board was directed from one person to another, and eventually to a CD which was never found. For this reason and for fairness’ sake, since this section could not be substantiated by evidence, the board had no choice but to disregard the said section. It is pertinent to note that this decision applied to all organizations, and thus the actual effect of this decision on the final classification was minimal, since the majority of organizations handing in their report are active attendants of such meetings.’
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Anton is probably the most despised student on campus right now but at least he opted for the truth and did not make up an attendance register to hide his mistake. What I don’t understand is how nobody noticed a register was being kept. When I worked in student organisations we would often ask what our attendance rate was at different intervals in the semester to see if it matched with our attendance sheet. And let us not forget the time Moviment Graffiti’s office was taken from them because they were not attending the recommended quota of KPS meetings! That instance really brought the issue in the limelight and students started to take the meetings more seriously. Not that the scope and the content of the meetings are not interesting but it was an extra commitment that students made time in their busy schedules to keep up with. Nobody likes having their time wasted!
The thing is that the fact that he didn’t make up an attendance letter does not really justify the fact that this mistake was done and that organizations have to once again pay the price for others’ mistakes.
From my experience within student organizations, many organizations attend KPS meetings for the sake of not losing their office (even though there were instances where certain topics were dealt with in a proper manner). Thus further to Tamara’s comment, if the attendance sheets were lost, does this mean that organizations who invested their valuable time, did so in vain?
i think its ridiculous that once again, organizations have to pay the price for mistakes which they had nothing to do with. Furthermore I believe, (and I’m sure that I’m not alone on this one, I remember current KSU international officer Albert Camilleri suggesting this as well) that a system to replace the current CONF system ought to be discussed immediately. This system is outdated and gives space for situations such as the above to occur or even worse…Let us not forget what happened last year with the publication of the results of this report!