The SAMAHAN Central Board (SCB), led by the Office of the Treasurer, declared utilization of modified allocation of funds for the different clusters, organizations, and departments with a P653,100 pesos budget for the first semester.
The SCB, along with the Department of Internal Audit conducted its first-semester budget hearing for A.Y. 2020-2021, last Monday via Zoom.
The SAMAHAN budget was sourced from the miscellaneous fees collected by the university, amounting to 100 pesos per student. There are 6,531 enrollees for the first semester, resulting in a 653,100 pesos budget for SAMAHAN.
Rona de Castro, SAMAHAN Treasurer, explained that one of the major considerations the office had upon reviewing the budget proposals was the transition to online classes. The majority of the allocation recommendations had face-to-face presumptions. Hence, the amount was changed in accordance with a specific sum.
In compliance with the online academic set-up, the designated budget to be distributed to the clusters and departments were regulated to an amount that would be enough to meet the needs for their online activities.
Additionally, their remaining total of allocated finances will be disbursed after the complete submission of each cluster’s liquidations from the preceding academic year.
The SAMAHAN Treasurer also took into account the lack of forwarded balance from the past semester which resulted from the implementation of lockdown. This indicates that the values shown during the budget hearing excluded the excess and deficits from the previous academic year.
Another factor that influenced the financial preparation was the postponement of face-to-face events. It is believed that the possibility of having these events will be pushed through the succeeding year. Thus, all apportioned costs that will not be incurred this semester will be retained.
“Since the SAMAHAN operations are limited online, the forecasted budget includes the support for the SAMAHAN Webinars, software for the development of the SAMAHAN Website, and budget for the cluster and departments’ activities that would hopefully add value to the students’ online learning,” De Castro stated.
The SAMAHAN Treasurer also added that despite the allocation being partially restricted, she is hoping that the budget for the various student sectors would mean something to the students’ learning experience.
The breakdown of how the SCB plans to spend this semester’s budget are as follows:
- Php 15,000 will be allocated for SAMAHAN office renovations.
- Php 15,000 will be allotted for the reimbursement purposes of the moderator’s fees.
- Php 15,000 will be given to the Office of the President (Php 5,000), Secretary-General (Php 5,000), and Treasurer (5,000) with a preliminary disbursement of 2,000 pesos each.
- Php 2,000 will be designated for Research and Development.
- Php 30,000 will go to the offices of the Campus Clubs Organizations (CCO) and General Assembly of Class Presidents (GACP), acquiring 12,000 pesos and 18,000 pesos, respectively.
- Php 267,000 will be appointed to the semester’s events, including the budget for postponed activities.
Php 325,600 is the overall allocatable funds that will be distributed to the clusters. Each of the groups will be receiving 8,000 pesos for the preliminary disbursement.
The cluster representatives deliberated on three proposed bases allocated for each group: Php 15,000, Php 18, 000, and Php 22,000. As the base increases, the disparity of allocation decreases.
After the consultation, all nine clusters agreed on the 22, 000 pesos base.
With the designated budget for the various clusters, each will receive the following respective amount:
- Accountancy – Php 43,393.66
- Business and Management – Php 47,516.09
- Computer Studies – Php 27,939.43
- Engineering and Architecture – Php 56,444.77
- Humanities and Letters – Php 27,958.96
- Natural Science and Mathematics – Php 26,220.12
- School of Education – Php 24, 383.59
- School of Nursing – Php 30,616.08
- Social Sciences – 41,127.30
Disbursements of the allotted budget for the departments and clusters will be transacted through GCash.
After the budget hearing, Joshua Daquipil, representative of the School of Engineering and Architecture (SEA) elaborated on how their cluster will maximize the allotted funds even though academics are being done online.
“The EASEC will only use the budget if deemed necessary, such as helping our constituents in the fiesta events such as the film crew in terms of technical equipment,” Daquipil said.
“Additionally, the budget will also be used for our advocacies for the year, that is, Protecting the Producer being our major advocacy, as well as other minor advocacies that will be pursued with the help of other course representatives within SEA,” the SEA representative added.
Social Sciences (SS) representative, Karlo Torreon, also shared his opinion on how their cluster will use the budget allocation.
Torreon emphasized that their student executive council (SEC) recognized the importance of resourcefulness when it comes to the cluster’s projects especially now that all transactions will be made online, making it difficult to utilize the funds given to them.
“With that said, we remain steadfast in our commitment to justifying the budget given unto us by firstly, finalizing our mechanism in giving academic subsidies for our scholars who are currently conducting research and secondly, providing public liquidation reports available for every SS student through our official FB group,” the SS representative asserted.
“Furthermore, since there is a likelihood of unused funds this 1st semester, we will use the funds in our projects for the second semester particularly our planned socio-civic engagements in partnership with our Government Organizations and target communities while also providing the needed activities like SS Sports Fest if face to face will be allowed by then,” Torreon added.
“Overall, our goal as the SS SEC is to justify the budget and give the vibrant university our fellow students deserve,” Torreon expressed.