She was a member of the Core Team of Autumn Agora Cagliari, a SubCommissioner of the Network Commission from November 2014 to March 2015, and a member in the Human Resources Committee. Beside this she has a lot of experience in her local, including Human Resources Responsible and also Treasurer. Deborah Pistori from AEGEE-Cagliari wants to run now for Audit Commission and we asked her a few questions about her program and motivation to run for this position.
The AEGEEan: Let us begin by you telling us three words that describe you and why you chose them.
Deborah: I consider myself an honest, passionate and reliable person. Honest, because I love transparency on every level, from personal relations to the professional field. Passionate, because I’ve always put all of myself in the things I’ve done so far and, speaking about AEGEE, there is nothing that I love more than that. To conclude I’m reliable, because I’m always available to give a hand; if I make a promise or I commit to something I will always make sure to keep my word and I don’t give up easily.
How would you describe your role in the Audit Commission within AEGEE to a 10 year old?
Ok, let’s portray AEGEE like a huge family. Mom and Dad have a lot of children and grandchildren. Dad runs a huge company and each member of the family is involved in it. Every child runs a branch of the company and every six months gives part of its incomes to their father. These incomes are used by Dad to finance the projects of his grandchildren and other projects/events. But Dad needs more money to finance all these activities, so he has to ask banks and other institutions for more money (like you do when you ask your mom for allowance). Now are you wondering what Mom does? She makes sure that Dad doesn’t spend money recklessly and also verifies from where he took the money that he spent. She does the same thing with her children and grandchildren. Mom is the Audit Commission.
What differentiates you from the other candidates for Audit Commission?
At the moment the candidates are just Mateusz from AEGEE-Kraków and me. I don’t know what differentiates me from him, because we’ve never met before and it would feel weird even trying to compare. Instead I would try to focus on what makes us similar. Reading his candidature, it feels like he really wants to work for the Audit Commission and so do I. I have a positive feeling about that, because if we manage to get elected and end up working together, it’s better doing it with someone who’s willing to work. I’m a hard-worker myself and I don’t like to take things too lightly when it comes to something which is supposed to be professional, so I appreciate when someone takes things seriously.
According to you, what is the biggest problem when it comes to auditing and finances in AEGEE and why?
I think AEGEE has an issue with knowledge transfer. It is not only related to finances and auditing, but it is a general problem which is spreading and hard to fight. Many locals don’t give a proper knowledge transfer when the board changes and it is also hard to get it from outside the local. The Members’ Portal is developing a lot, but new members and newly elected boards do not always know about its existence or how to use it and unfortunately it does not contain all the necessary tools yet.
Concerning finances and auditing, it often happens that previous boards do not keep records of what they have done in the previous year, so this becomes an issue when it comes time to fill in the financial report. But this is not the only issue here, I find troublesome the fact that the submitted financial report cannot be downloaded for future references, and I truly believe that something should be done about that.
How do you plan to solve this problem?
Concerning knowledge transfer, as I wrote in my candidature, I want to give locals proper tools on finances, teach them from the basics using every possible support, from presentations to videos or even normal PDFs. The thing that matters here is that these tools have to be understandable for everyone, we do not want to complicate people’s lives more. The aim is to help them and make them understand that financial matters are not that bad or difficult after all. [she smiles, ed.]
Regarding records and the download of the financial report, I have some ideas on how to solve them, but I’m not exactly an IT expert so I will need to speak to the Information Technology Committee (ITC) or whoever knows how to deal with the intranet accounts and AEGEE technology.
What is the main feature you would bring to Audit Commission?
As said before, I’m a very hardworking person and challenges do not frighten me. I’m going to give my all in the Audit Commission and never back down. I have lots of ideas, from how to train members to giving support to the Financial Director, reporting transparently to everyone on AEGEE Europe’s financial situation. I truly believe that, if we want to grow as an association we should help each other and have our members trained properly. My main goal for this year is to have treasurers prepared, and I’m willing to help them in every possible way. I want to support the locals and all AEGEE bodies, be fast in communication and reply as fast as possible to every question or email received.
What is your opinion about the recent European economy? 
European economy is not an easy topic to discuss at the moment. Everybody knows that we are facing an unprecedented crisis and even though the Spring Economic Forecast of the European Commission has shown signs of progress and a general GDP growth, we’re still not over it. I believe that in the short period we won’t see astonishing progresses, also due to some recent events. For example the Volkswagen scandal concerning the emissions violations will not be beneficial to European economy, because it will generate negative externalities that will make the demand curve shrink, diminishing the production of cars and hardly getting profits. We have to hope that in the long run the European economy will rise again, following the example of Poland whose GDP has grown more than in other European countries and where unemployment rates have dropped.
If it were up to you, would you give money equally to every country in Europe and why?
Honestly this is quite a bizarre question. If we are talking about the European Union we have to know that money loans and grants are given under specific requests and have to respect the financial regulations approved by the European Commission, not to mention the fact that each country of the European Union is constantly financially monitored to prevent any financial breakdown.
That being said, I don’t think that each country should be funded equally. There are countries financially stable and powerful, and others risking financial breakdowns that need to be supported in order to secure a dignified existence to its citizens and to allow for general European financial stability. I believe that regulations over financial matters are absolutely needed, they should prevent any reckless use and abuse of public funds.
Written by Gabriela Geană, AEGEE-București
You can read her full candidature here.