CORRECTION APPENDED

Undergraduate Council (UC) Treasurer Blake M. Kurisu ’07 announced last night that the UC had overestimated its 2005-2006 budget by $1,724.72.

In an e-mail sent over the UC open list late last night, Kurisu explained that the treasury errors resulted in smaller than expected grants to student groups at last week’s UC meeting.

The council’s Finance Committee cut all grants awarded to student groups proportionally by 45 percent last week.

UC President John S. Haddock ’07 maintained last night that the council’s budget miscalculations had no effect on last week’s grants package to student groups.

“At the end of the game, we had less than we expected from previous cash flow statements, but that had no effect on the last grants package,” Haddock said.

In the e-mail, Kurisu listed several specific accounting errors that contributed to the overestimated budget.

Kurisu found that in the fall semester then-Treasurer Matthew R. Greenfield ’08 failed to record $632.72 worth of checks that were written to pay for expenses incurred during the 2004-2005 academic year. [Please see correction below.]

“I don’t know if [Greenfield] forgot or subtracted the wrong amount, but the amount subtracted was less than the actual amount. Not enough was subtracted, we thought we had more money,” Kurisu told The Crimson last night.

In another oversight, the Harvard Concert Commission—a subsidiary of the UC—withdrew an additional $657 without UC permission. The $657 was not accounted for in the treasurer’s report.

In a third mistake, because of incorrect records, the UC allocated $2,085 of Harvard University Dining Services’ food vouchers to student groups though it did not actually have them and had to pay for that error from money out of the grants fund.

A March 3 cash-flow statement incorrectly understated debits from the grants fund by $1750.

While it is unclear what prompted this specific investigation, Kurisu said the council’s bylaws require the UC to conduct an audit at the end of each semester.

But another UC member said the review was prompted after it became clear that there were inconsistencies between grants that had been claimed and records kept in the treasurer’s weekly cash flow sheets.

Kurisu conceded that his suspicion also arose after the money left in the grants fund was smaller than expected.

“We were a little skeptical about our numbers nearing the end of the year, and so I started this audit,” Kurisu said.

Last night, both Haddock and Kurisu emphasized the importance of learning from these errors.

“That is why I authorized the release of all our records,” Haddock said. “So students can figure out where we have been wrong in the past.”

Kurisu added that he would take specific steps to prevent further accounting errors.

“We found clear things we could work on,” Kurisu said. “I am going to come up with a standardized accounting procedure.”

Kurisu added that financial documents were often lost in the transition between treasurers.

“We don’t have a record of what to do when you become treasurer,” he said.

—Staff writer Alexander D. Blankfein can be reached at ablankf@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Rachel L. Pollack can be reached at rpollack@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION: The print and original online editions of this article incorrectly stated that the $632.72 worth of checks that were not recorded in the Undergraduate Council's books were written by Matthew R. Greenfield '08, a former treasurer of the UC. In fact, the checks had been written by Greenfield's predeccessor but cashed during Greenfield's term. Of the $1,330 worth of checks that were not written by
Greenfield but cashed while he was treasurer, $632.72 went unrecorded.