KSU rebuts allegations of corruption and favouritism
Gerald Fenech In a hastily convened press conference held at University yesterday, Kunsill Studenti Universitarji vice president Matthew Paris strongly rebutted allegations of favouritism and corruption in the management of the Student Opportunity Fund.
“In the past days there have been several allegations regarding favouritism in the KSU and that we have tried to stifle liberty of opinion and expression. This cannot be further from the truth”, Paris said.
He said that the election of the Chairman of the KSU’s Annual General Meeting was a transparent process, where the KSU’s proposal for the post was rejected and the person elected to chair the meeting was actually someone close to the left wing organization Pulse.
Rebutting the allegations with regard to the Students Opportunity Fund, Paris said that there was an independent board which adjudicated applications and the KSU was extremely active in promoting the fund amongst all University students – clearly everyone was being targeted and there was absolutely no favouritism.
Reacting to the claims by Realta’ editor Mark Camilleri that two members of the KSU had reported the content of the story to the Precints Officer Joe Camilleri, Paris insisted that the officer had already testified that it had been two students who had made the report, but the KSU was never mentioned.
“We are also strongly rebutting the claims made that we only carried out 35% of our electoral manifesto, as some people have stated recently. The ‘Green Area’ where we are holding this press conference has actually been refurbished during our tenure and the team has been working assiduously to carry out most of what we promised.”
Asked by MaltaToday about the composition of the Electoral Commission for tomorrow’s KSU’s elections, Paris simply said that the commission had been democratically elected by the AGM, and it had the confidence of those who voted for it.
Paris also referred to the Electoral Commission when asked to confirm if there had been an attempt to disqualify Mark Camilleri’s Moviment Indipendenti from contesting the KSU elections, due to a poster which was deemed to be in bad taste. gfenech@mediatoday.com.mt
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