Updated: March 27, 2017 at 6:03 p.m.

A “procedural error” that occurred during the Student Association’s operating budget approval process violated articles of SA’s constitution and bylaws.

The revelation came at SA’s March 20 meeting, when president Eric Evangelista said he submitted his annual budget proposal to the organization’s Finance Board without prior approval from the cabinet and assembly.

“A part of the bylaws states that it does have to be reviewed by assembly and cabinet before being submitted,” Evangelista said at the meeting, referring to the budget. “That is not only something I did not know, that was something my two predecessors did not do and did not convey to me either.”

Submitting the budget to the Finance Board without approval from the assembly and cabinet violates article 1.15 of the SA bylaws, which states that SA’s operating budget must be approved by the cabinet and assembly before being forwarded to the Finance Board. It also violates article 4.2.3 of the SA constitution, which states that the president’s annual budget must be approved by the assembly.

It is unclear the exact date Evangelista gave his budget proposal to the Finance Board.

Nicole Sherwood, SA’s chair of public relations, said it was unclear if SA’s Judicial Review Board would launch an investigation into these violations because she is unsure if the JRB was notified of the situation.

Evangelista was not the only person responsible for the violations, Sherwood said. If the JRB were to investigate this incident, many people would be involved, she added.

She said Malik Evans, SA’s comptroller, did not fulfill his obligation to inform Evangelista of the budget process. Obi Afriyie, SA’s parliamentarian, failed “to be in charge of” the bylaws and the constitution, she added.

“We as cabinet members failed to be on top of what was happening,” Sherwood said.

This marks the second time Evangelista was involved in actions that broke SA bylaws during the 60th Legislative Session. In February, the JRB found Evangelista guilty of multiple bylaw violations, including for lying to university officials and the SA assembly. The violations stemmed from his attempted appointment of Sherwood to a public relations co-chair position without opening the position to applications from the student body.

At the March 20 meeting, Evangelista said multiple times he followed precedent regarding the budget procedure. For the past two or three years, presidents did not get assembly and cabinet approval of the initial budget proposal, Evangelista said.

Boris Gresely, president of the 58th Legislative Session, told Sherwood he followed the budget approval process correctly during his term, she said. But Sherwood claimed that Aysha Seedat, president of the 59th Legislative Session, did not correctly follow the budget approval process during her term.

Seedat, though, denied those claims, saying in a text message that she followed the bylaws and had the assembly approve the budget before submitting it to the Finance Board.

According to the bylaws, the budget must be approved through a four-step process. The president must first submit the proposed budget to the cabinet, which votes to approve the budget before sending it to the assembly. Once the assembly votes to approve the budget, the budget is sent to the Finance Board for evaluation. It is then sent back to the assembly for final approval.

Evangelista bypassed the first two steps of the process, as he submitted the budget to the Finance Board without prior approval from the cabinet and assembly.

In the future, the budget approval process will follow the proper procedure outlined in the bylaws, he said during the meeting. Evangelista did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story following the meeting.

Afriyie, SA’s parliamentarian, said at the meeting that decisions made based on precedent set by past administrations were not an excuse for ignoring the bylaws.

“If this was any other organization that was applying for money through SA with the Finance Board and they did (not follow the bylaws), they would not have funding,” Afriyie said. “But we get a grace period because we’re Student Association, and I don’t agree that’s OK.”

Evans, SA’s comptroller who presides over Finance Board meetings and allocates money to student organizations, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

Afriyie also said in an email that he did not believe the violations were Evangelista’s fault because it is the parliamentarian’s job to ensure the administration followed procedural rules. The parliamentarian assists the speaker and cabinet in matters of parliamentary procedure, bylaws and standing rules, according to the SA constitution. Afriyie was elected parliamentarian on Jan. 23.

“There are a lot of things in the bylaws that are hidden and outdated,” he said. The bylaw articles violated were only recently discovered, he said.

The bylaws were last amended on March 3.

Afriyie said he followed what was done in the past and he did not make sure that the budget approval procedure was correct. He said the advisers who directed Evangelista were also unaware that the process violated the bylaws.

Article 4.13 of the SA bylaws states that failure to adhere to SA documents “whether in ignorance or general disregard” would warrant a referral to SA’s JRB. Assembly members, cabinet members, the president, the vice president and members of all elected boards are required to sign a statement confirming they have read and understood all documents that dictate the rules of behavior in SA, according to article 4.13.

SA officials asked Evangelista to show the proposed budget to the assembly at the Monday meeting, but Evangelista said he was cautioned against doing so because people “would make it the headline of the day.”

Evangelista said he would share the budget with assembly members electronically and that the Finance Board would eventually present the budget to the assembly for final approval.

The proper approval process outlined in the bylaws will not be followed retroactively.

“There was a mistake made that couldn’t be fixed,” Sherwood said.

Published on March 26, 2017 at 8:12 pm

Contact Jordan: jmulle01@syr.edu | @jordanmuller18