Often, when a multitude of events come together in ways that don't seem to fit, it only takes one piece of information to bring an entire puzzle together, and into focus.
On Feb. 12, SA Treasurer Sikander Khan moved a gargantuan $300,000 from what he called a "rainy day fund" to a line named "Projects." The fund was actually a line called "Cash and Investments," a rollover fund for the mandatory student activity fee.
Khan said that the money should be spent, but at that time there was no talk of what it should be spent on. There were, however, a few simple guidelines to follow. The money had to provide "long term benefits" to the students, any project spent must benefit the student body for a five-year period, and the project must provide services for at least 50 percent of the student body.
That kind of talk is extremely vague, and caused a great deal of contention among the SA senate and other parts of SA. That is, until March 27, when more rigid rules on how to spend the money were suggested alongside another move for the money to a line called "Long Term Projects Capital Equipment."
Written by SA Engineering Coordinator Dan Pastuf, it built upon Khan's original guidelines. It required that the SA senate look over the spending from the new line to make sure that the money was in agreement with Khan's original guidelines, and ensure that SA was getting a fair value for any purchases.
Oddly enough, Khan was not very happy about this new measure. He tried saying it was against SUNY regulations, and that it wasn't fair that he didn't have time to go over the measure.
It's apparent now, however, that Khan didn't want the money to be more restricted because he had already signed a contract with the intent of using the $300,000. According to an investigation done by SA Entertainment Director Marc Rosenblitt, some time on March 13, Khan and SA Vice President Meghan McMonagle signed a contract for work totaling $297,500.
At this time, we are unaware of how many people knew Khan and McMonagle were intending on signing the contract.
The money was going to a company named Virtual Academix, which is supposed to be a mobile phone application design company. A quick scan of its website makes it pretty clear that this company is either not what it says it is or extremely inexperienced in its field.
The graphics are cheesy and ripped off, the literature is vague to the point of being ridiculous, and the list of companies Virtual Academix claims to have worked with is a lie.
So we have many questions for Khan. Considering he's a computer science major thinking about attending a law school, we have every indication that he should not have fallen for this if it was a pure scam. Even a person with only rudimentary knowledge of websites would know that a professional information technology company would have something better than a free Wordpress site with a domain name purchased from GoDaddy.com.
Yet, we have a major problem. Khan has not been returning our calls, hasn't been available in his office, and hasn't been to his classes. We've done everything within our power to contact him.
So even after running for treasurer under the notion that he would be all for the student voice, and even while the mistake he made comes to light, he refuses to be seen or heard to answer for the hard-earned money he nearly turned over to a company that looks fraudulent.
Here's what we would have asked, had we been given the chance:
How is your friend Shuja's brother - Viqar Hussain - involved with Virtual Academix?
Why did you hide this deal from almost everyone at the SA office?
How much was McMonagle involved in this deal? Was she simply taking your word for it?
Why did you wait get multiple bids until after the contract was signed?
When exactly did you make the decision to give money to Virtual Academix?
Yet while thinking of these questions, we can't help but remember Khan's sudden shift in tone with The Spectrum since Fall semester. Until this semester, Khan has been less than forthcoming and even downright hostile toward us. Then something suddenly changed.
He pushed us to publish an article about how useful a mobile SA app would be, and has been eager to dish information on President JoAnna Datz. Then, he suddenly wanted to write in money for The Spectrum in the SA budget. All this from the guy we thought thoroughly hated us.
Maybe it had something to do with the open secret that Datz has been on bad terms with Khan and McMonagle. Khan could have just been eager to look better than Datz, or he could have been trying to pull one over on us. At this point, there are more questions than answers.
What's clear, however, is that something needs to change. No matter if there was foul play on Khan's part or not, the fact remains that handing over that cash would have been a horrible decision, and it almost happened without oversight.
The transaction was only prevented because someone got a hold of a signed document before it was hidden again. That's it. Khan was a proverbial inch from the finish line in wasting $300,000.
Much better oversight for large transactions needs to be put in place. SA's attorney normally has to look at large contracts, but obviously Khan was easily able to move around this.
SA senate should have to look at any contract over a certain amount, say $30,000, to make sure that it is not only a fair market price but so it also protects our investment from fraud. Then, an independent party should have to do the same process.
There's a lot we don't know about what has happened here. We want to give our readers as much information as possible. We want our view to be balanced, but few are talking and those who do are fairly well insulated from any fallout. This whole thing centers on Khan.
It's time to face the music, Khan. We are the students you represent, and we want answers now.
