Today we introduce you to Oğuzhan Ayhan, the only candidate for the Audit Commission. He has already been Audit Commissioner since Agora Enschede. The AEGEEan asked him some questions to learn more about his plans.

The AEGEEan: Please describe yourself in three words and tell us why you chose them.
Oğuzhan: I’m a patient, hardworking and dedicated person. I chose them because I think I have such qualities.

Why did you decide to run for a position in the Audit Commission again?
In the future I want to work in finances and working as Audit Commission gives a great experience. My first term was a short period of time and I learnt what to do and how to do so, and this time I will work for a longer time with better knowledge.

According to you, what do you think is the most important quality to be in Audit Commission and why do you have it?
I think the most important thing is financial knowledge because without that being in the Audit Commission is meaningless. I have been in the Audit Commission for about a year as a subcommissioner and a commissioner and also other than that I was treasurer of some projects so, because of these I think I have enough knowledge about finances.

If you had to choose, what would be the main point of your programme and why?
I think the most important point of my programme is maintaining a local approach with treasurers. To do so, I want to continue with subcommissioners again because as I see some treasurers are not good at English and with the help of people who can speak their language they can get the help they need more easily.

Questions from the Network

What would you rather keep and what would you rather change with respect to the current Audit Commission?
I want to change the communication with locals. We need to improve that to be better and to do it we need a big team and this is what I want to keep. Without a big team of Audit Commission (subcommissioners and treasurers) to do this is impossible.

How do you envision to have more understanding from locals about your technical work? Do you have some ideas in mind?
Well, we already have the Fiscal Law Database, a new Template, a new Toolkit, Podio, InterTemporal Register and 30 minutes of webinar about financial reports. In any case, I’m always open to questions.

You can read his full candidature here.

Written by Lia Touska, AEGEE-Brussel/AEGEE-Sofia

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.

The Audit Commission is on fire! Right after having selected their jobshadowers for this term and collecting the Activity Reports from all AEGEE antennae, the team met from the 20th until the 22nd of March in Brussels to audit the finances of AEGEE-Europe. The AEGEEan talked to the President of the Audit Commission, Arnau Robert (AEGEE-Tarragona), about the current and future plans of the Audit Commission.

The Audit Commission is a team composed by three members elected every Autumn Agora and is right now formed by Luca Lombardo (AEGEE-Torino), Mathijs Waegemakers (AEGEE-Enschede) and Arnau himself. “Our tasks are basically to ask for a summary of the financial activity that all the antennae had during the previous year, and check if they match with the information provided by the Financial Director through the Financial Reports. In case we have doubts, we ask for their documents”, Arnau explains.

To keep it simple: “we ensure that the finances of AEGEE are correct and according with our values, and following our mission and goals”, Arnau summarises. However, the team members are aware that the Network doesn’t always know what the Audit Commission goals are. This is why one of the points of their program this term was to actually give more visibility to their tasks, by starting to contribute to the AEGEE-Europe newsletter that is sent every two weeks, and through the brand new Facebook fanpage of the Audit Commission, where they broadcast their work regularly and post all reminders and relevant information for the antennae.

Getting ready for the Audit meeting in Brussels

The members of the Audit Commission met in the weekend of the 20th of March at AEGEE-Europe’s Brussels headoffice. It was the first one out of the two meetings that the Audit Commission has each term to check every single invoice and bill, in order “to make sure that everything is correctly posted and the money is spent wisely, and according to AEGEE’s values”, as Arnau explains.

These meetings are usually kicked-off with a teambuilding sessions among the team members, the jobshadowers who will join the meeting, and the Financial Director of AEGEE-Europe. Afterwards, the Audit Commission asks for all the bills and statements, and will spend the weekend checking if everything is correct. If the Audit Commission finds any mistake, they notify the Financial Director in order for her to fix it in her Financial Report.

The auditing sessions are very important, since the Audit Commission will report the findings that are relevant for the Network to know during the following Agora, right after the Financial Director presents the Financial Report. Therefore, a busy and crucial week is awaiting for the Audit Commission and Ioana Duca, our current Financial Director!

The jobshadowers are ready to support the Audit Commission

Meeting with the jobshadowers

Other than preparing for their Audit meeting, the Audit Commission has been gathering all the Financial Reports from the AEGEE antennae, and selected their team of jobshadowers who will support them in their tasks. “It was a very hard decision, because we only needed six jobshadowers, and around twenty people applied in the end!”, out of which eight people were accepted in the end, according to Arnau.

These jobshadowers have a relevant role inside the Audit Commission, since they get a first-hand experience on how the finances in AEGEE-Europe work. They might even become candidates for next year’s Audit Commission, which is why all applicants go through a very strict selection process.

The Audit Commission met a few weeks ago in a Hangout, where they were explained how the work was going to be – by now, they are already checking the main check points of the financial reports of all the antennae, which will be double-checked by the actual commissioners once they finish.

Last but not least, we asked Arnau what it takes to be an Audit Commission member, and why he would encourage potential candidates to apply at the Autumn Agora in Kyiv: “The Audit Commission is a very interesting commission if you want to practice what you studied, and you want to gain experience in this field [finances, ed.].” He adds: “You can help a lot in order to make sure the statements and finances of AEGEE are correct!”.

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona