Still with over a million-peso budget for three semesters now, the Office of the SAMAHAN Treasurer conducted the second-semester budget hearing for AY 2021-2022 last Monday via Zoom.
The budget collected from this semester’s enrollment totaled 686,600 pesos, from the SAMAHAN Fee of 100 pesos. The balance forwarded from last semester is 342,754 pesos, totaling 1,028,833 pesos.
The budget will be distributed to SAMAHAN Offices and Departments (178,000 pesos), SAMAHAN Events (355,000 pesos), Council of Class President (40,000 pesos), and clusters (455,833 pesos).
SAMAHAN Treasurer Marion James Tarnate reviewed the previous semester’s budget tracker with a total budget of 1,165,143 pesos.
Tarnate emphasized that everything he showed has already been liquidated and audited by the Commission on Audit (COA) and passed to the Finance Office.
The final draft budget was voted by the elected SCB members under the new SAMAHAN constitution; however, the SAMAHAN Treasurer mentioned that COA would be the one to ratify and approve the entire semester’s budget of SAMAHAN through a memorandum.
Last December 7, the COA approved the SCB second sem budget.
As the majority of the members voted for the 18,000 pesos base, each cluster will receive the following amount:
- Accountancy – Php 25,544.74
- Business and Management – Php 44,260.17
- Computer Studies – Php 43,746.20
- Engineering and Architecture – Php 135,999.51
- Humanities and Letters – Php 45,921.06
- Natural Science and Mathematics – Php 57,705.57
- School of Education – Php 32,736.62
- School of Nursing – Php 40,156.02
- Social Sciences – Php 29,762.96
After the hearing, Harriete Haw, the Computer Studies Representative, shared that CSSEC will be allotting a huge percentage of their cluster funds to the upcoming IT Week 2021, which will happen from December 13 until December 18.
She further explained that this event is the CS cluster’s annual major event wherein students can learn about information technology and other concepts relevant to the tech field.
The said event includes different academic and non-academic activities and competitions where the CS cluster needs funds to pay for the event expenses.
“In conclusion, we will be using the cluster funds to pay for the expenses of the different events we would be having in the 2nd Semester, namely, the IT Week 2021, Adulting Series, and our CS Awards Night,” she said.
Meanwhile, SS Representative Emanuele Galvez told Atenews that for transparency purposes, the cluster would utilize the funds for future advocacy projects that will benefit Mindanao, the country, and of course, the Social Sciences Cluster.
“Moreover, the Siklab Silangan, our advocacy arm, will further utilize these funds to acquire renowned storytellers that will further inspire students in SS to participate in the 2022 National Elections,” he said.
Galvez shared that the main challenge for the Social Sciences Cluster in maximizing the funds is the overlapping plans that they want to achieve to help the Social Sciences Dragon.
The SS Representative further explained that an example of this plan is the “The Dragon Aid,” which aims to give load support to SS students in need for their Final Summative Assessment.
Budget hearings are conducted twice at the start of a new semester in one academic year, attended by representatives from various sectors of the student body.