Over $250,000 was allegedly spent on two union-controlled credit cards in the 2018-2019 academic year.
The Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) announced on Jan. 21 it filed a police report after a forensic audit into alleged financial mismanagement by last year’s executive team was completed.
Last year the Eyeopener revealed that two RSU executives had been spending money on food, clothes, alcohol and entertainment on union credit cards under the names of the president and vice-president operations. According to the union’s financial controller at the time, expenses totalled $273,000.
In the wake of the scandal, the RSU’s president, Ram Ganesh was impeached. Vice-president operations Savreen Gosal, who also had a card under her name, had her signing authority suspended but remained in her role for the remainder of the year.
“We look forward to the Toronto Police Service becoming an important partner in our organization’s effort toward delivering justice to the students we represent,” a Facebook post on the RSU’s page reads.
It is not clear who the police report names or what charges are being investigated.
Toronto police confirmed a report was made “regarding allegations from 2018.” As the investigator has not yet spoken to witnesses, police would not comment further.
In the post, the RSU notes they retained PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct the audit in March. The audit has since been completed and will be released at the union’s semi-annual general meeting on Feb. 3.
Joshua Wiggins, vice-president student life and events, and James Fotak, vice-president operations, declined to comment, saying questions will be answered at the meeting.
The RSU’s current president, Vanessa Henry, has not responded to the Ryersonian’s requests for comment.
In a Jan. 20 interview with the Ryersonian, Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi said the university had not seen the results of the audit. Making the results public was one of the conditions the university imposed on the union after the credit card statements were revealed.
The university has been withholding the RSU’s fees — except for some fees such as health and dental — since the end of Jan. 2019, pending the audit’s results.
In an updated post on their Facebook page, the RSU specifically noted the audit was looking into the expenses of Ganesh, Gosal and Vijayatharshini (Dharshini) Jayachandran, who was the union’s financial controller during the 2018-19 year.
This story is developing.
