Dinner Money
INDIGNATION ABOUNDS AT Merton after the new JCR committee unearthed the figures for last year's Exec's expenses. JCR Treasurer Rosalind Hook discovered that the cost of their predecessors' celebratory meal at the end of last term exceeded the recommended amount - by up to £55 per head.
Although ex-JCR President Emma Evans claims that "the meal cost in the region of £60 a head," other Merton sources suggest that it may have been as much as £80.
The ex-JCR committee have escaped official action for the wasteful expense because a motion passed in the last meeting of Trinity term stated that: "The executive committee has done fucking well...this JCR therefore resolves to give the Exec an expensive meal because they deserve it and we love them."
Evans therefore justifies their behaviour, stating that: "the meal cost was in the region of £60 a head which qualifies as expensive, hence fulfilling our mandate." It appears, however, that this unlimited budget was offered in good faith and that the general feeling now is that the voters' generosity was exploited.
In their defence, ex-Treasurer Alex Edmans pointed out that the amount spent on the meal was similar to that of the year before "even though we were given unlimited money and they were not." The executive committee of 1998-9 also allegedly lost up to £3000 in comparison to Edman's claim to a profit of £5000.
But Edmans failed to point out that when the previous year's exec spent over its £25 per head budget, they paid the rest of the bill out of their own pockets.
Disgruntled Mertonians have also suggested that a large amount of money was lost through Evans' committee's mismanagement of the Merton Ball last year.
Evans told the Oxford Student that "the number of people dining was significantly fewer than at the committee meals of other colleges and so the total cost of this meal is far from extortionate."
The biggest complaint that seems to have come out of this is that the JCR took advantage of their members' trust and spent money that could better have been used in under-funded areas affecting the whole college. Merton's budget allows only £200 for a bop and the Entz officers have had to purchase their own equipment so that they no longer have to scrimp and save to hire a DJ each time. £1000 is allowed for welfare, an amount for the year only twice as much as Evans' Exec spent on one night of luxury.
Furthermore, it was Edmans who opposed Sunday's motion to purchase a computer for the JCR, claiming that it was too expensive and Merton's JCR could not afford it.
Our Merton source suggests that all people really want is an apology. When asked to justify the meal's expense it has been said that "the reaction is either laughter or they say they deserved it...the general feeling appears to be that they think they've got away with it".
19th Oct 2000