Easter
Have a blessed Easter, everyone.
* * * * *
Here’s the scenario: A guy gives his wife $100 to go grocery shopping. The items total $78. Two months later, the guy claims the couple is in debt because the wife did not give him the $22 change.
In the real world, the wife says to the husband: “You’re an idiot.” And she’s right. Whether she spent the entire amount or none of it, that was the amount budgeted, and the expectation is the entire amount will be spent. While he might have hoped to get some change, he gave the money without expectations of a refund.
In UH’s world, the bean counters say to coaches: “We’re in debt because you didn’t give back change from the advance for your trip.”
Advances are based on the amount budgeted for a trip, a figure approved by the bean counters. The issue shouldn’t be the amount of the advance, it should be the amount budgeted for the trip. Let’s suppose a dodgeball team’s trip is expected to cost $5,000. The team is given a $5,000 advance. It would be hunky and dory if the trip ended up costing under $5,000. But in projecting a budget, the expectation is that the full $5,000 will be used. The school’s budget expectations are the same whether all or part of the advance is spent. It can’t be claimed the school is OK because the team spent $5,000 but is in debt because it spent $4,800.
Times are hard on the boulevard, but UH should be looking for revenue through sponsorships and fund-raisers and not in travel budgets.
Happy Easter!
GOOD MORNING AND HAPPY EASTER TO ONE AND ALL!
Top 5!
Find those eggs!
Thank goodness forvtraditions like Easter, Christmas, Memorial day and the like. Whatevercit means to individuals or not, just pausing to reflect is a good thing.
Sorry, fat fingers.
Not returning unused funds by UH coaches is stealing.
UH coaches need all they can get for the sake of UH football. Go Warriors!
Happy Easter to all.
ST: Good points. I agree that UH needs to step up in regards to generating revenue and being more self-supporting from more aggressive fund raising, private donors, and sponsorships. At the same time, AD Ben Jay realizes that it cannot be “business as usual” anymore as far as loose and “easy going” paper work and handling of money. “Yeah, yeah, I pay you next week Mistah. I promise. I promise.”
Like the guy who has paid off his debt, but still uses credit cards. He’s bound to end up in debt again in the future.
Wonder if UH can schedule a game in NK for goodwill…
Still find it hard to believe that the UH VP who okayed the wire transfer of $200K for the Wonder Blunder concert still has a job.
There is a lot of waste on the UH Manoa campus. For example, why do they need 3 ESL programs when one will suffice? Doesn’t make sense and is a waste of $$ to have such redundant departments on one campus.
Happy Easter. Imua Warriors & Rainbow Wahine!!!
When the buck is passed like that, it’s usually to cover up something elsewhere… divert attention to some other bigger issue.
Budget Deficit, Smudget Deficit. It’s a paper loss! Look on the bright side. It is a Beeeeutiful Day in Paradise!
ST,
I’ve got to respectfully disagree with your analysis. With the state of finances at UH, the school needs to look at all revenue and expenses. It wouldn’t be the advance or the budget that should set precedence, but the actual cost of the trip. The remaining budget left unused should go back to the fund for other approved expenditures.
Good morning everyone!
Happy Easter!
Good morning Tsaikos!
Happy Easter!
Happy birthday Mrs. C!
Aren’t the big ticket items for trips, e.g., airfare, hotel, per diem, invoiced to UH? Or have the procedures changed in the last 10 years? UH used to include hotel in your per diem. One year, I lost money because a conference was in NYC and the room rate was way above our per diem. (They changed it later to not include hotel in the per diem amount.) Other years, I ate cheap and got to keep what I didn’t spend of the per diem.
Good Easter morning, gang!
ST ~ The process you use as an example is not how travel expenses should be handled. (Although, it appears that UH doesn’t follow normal business practices if that example is true.) It’s a State institution and should adhere to a tighter process. After all, it’s your & my tax dollars (& ticket revenue & donations) that provide funding.
Usually, it should follow steps like:
1. You come up with a written budget for the trip;
2. The organization (Purchasing) buys the airline tickets (& conference registrations);
3. If you have a Univ. credit card, you use it for your hotel expenses & auto rental;
4. You get an 80% or 70% cash advance on per diem (meals);
5. When you return, you provide receipts & are reimbursed any valid out-of-pocket expenses;
6. If the $ advance is less than the expenses, you return the excess.
Paper trail; auditable; you know exactly how much the trip cost.
The excess is not kept as a “bonus”. Maybe some private industries do that, but not State institutions.
K, off the soap box…
Leisha Liilii, the Softbows 1st baseperson, is a beast. She hit a homerun last night that hit the roof of the Softbows batting house. Not only did she hit the roof, but hit it half way across it. From all recollection, I have never seen anyone do that before. Wondering how far she can hit a baseball. Maybe, after she finishes her career as a Softbows, she could play for the Basebows. She is the Softbows version of a long ago Basebows, Joey Meyer.
By the way, have a HAPPY & SAFE EASTER SUNDAY, EVERYONE!!!!
oooooh yeahhh…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLOMAOHANA !!!
a.k.a. “Big C”
http://warriorbeat.staradvertiserblogs.com/2011/05/10/mrs-c/
says the guy muttering to himself thinking no one can hear him: “shes just gonna strike out again”
If we are talking about a regular conference road trip where budgets often carry a contingency, agree with Mr Tsai.
Heck, let the coach keep the spare change for late night pizza’s.
If we are talking about the 2008 All State Sugar Bowl trip–show me the receipts!
Aloha, What if the trip costed $5,500?
kden, puhi
ST – did you actually count how many floor wipes there were? 🙄 How many does Stanford have per match, on average? 🙄
OKekoa:
March 31st, 2013 at 9:02 am
Happy Easter Sunday to all!
I know, I know…but go ahead and make room on da cake for anoddah birthday candle for Mrs C.
Good to be able to enjoy some good grinds & excellent Hawaiian music with braddah Uku@LA last nite. The Tsaiko cc put together by Koakane even came complete with our own Meteorologist! The lovely Moanike’ala Nabarrow provided beautiful in-door weather.
Unfortunately, like most of the other older clubs on island, the The Corner Kitchen* *dares* you to find a parking spot nearby. I almost had to Park at Safeway, and call Frank Delima @ 422-2222 and Lissen da Cha-lang-a-lang taxi song. Ahhh…but we are so blessed to live in Paradise! Aloha Ke Akua.
#19
kelly majam has put a few inside the tennis courts…while people were playing tennis…when she was a freshman. those were with different bats. imagine leisha using the bats they used in 2010, maybe she could hit it into the pond.
tyleen tausaga used to hit the scoreboard. coach coolen bragged that amanda taualii could hit it over the scoreboard in practice, but she never did it in a game.
Happy birthday to Big C!
A bunch of whoo-hoo’s to you!!!
okay, so how is the football coaches saving money on their travel expenses? nice trick with rising fuel prices.
SNAFU @ THE FINANCIAL LAUGHING STOCK OF WAC/WAC, BW, NCAA, ETC., ETC..
Hau’oli la hanau, ColomaOhana!!!
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Wahine keep on trucking. Baseball climbing the mountain. Charlie Wade might be on thin ice. At the minimum, gotta make it to the MPSF playoffs. This team has some talent but they tend to implode. Jay has to make hard decisions.
happy Easter 808, a super nice 😎 sunny day to enjoy family
congrats
to sball wahines and bball warriors, keep it going
watching a good game 😯 between cardinal and blue devils. both well coached, diciplined with outstanding players
seconding kekoa’s thoughts on last nite cc, it was perfect, music eceptional, food exquisit and beverage abundant. mahalo to all that came. 😛
Hey Stephen, I haven’t seen UH do a helluva lot right in the past six or seven years….why do we expect more now?
How safe is Charlie Wade’s job now that his team has missed the playoffs two years in a row?? Didn’t coach Wilton get let go after missing the playoffs twice in a row??
You cannot penalize the coaches for a questionable system that was put in place. The administration should sit down and come up with a better accounting system to make it easier on the coaches instead of easier for the admistration.
GoBows, #27, now Coach Coolen can brag that Leisha can hit the batting house roof, cause she has. If Leisha were to use the bats the Softbows were using in 2010, she would seriously hurt someone. 🙂
Attention: Just look into the mirror. Who elected the State Government that appoints the Board of Regents, who hire the President, who hires the Chancellor, who hires the AD, who hires the coaches.
PS: These are the same people that can’t run a State, County, University or Athletic Department.
Scary to think what Leisha could have sone with the “Hot Bats” from 2+years ago.
Oops sorry dedicatedfan, didnt see your 38! Hehe
#39 I think you missed the point but I appreciate your insight.
Scott Squier’s new nickname, “Wildthing”. He’s hit 4 batters in less than 4 innings.
ST:
must diagree with your “major post” on travel expenses and refunds – I believe it’s a matter of principle that if you are given $$$ for a trip and don’t use it all that the balance should be refunded.
use of “per diem” for meals, I believe is a different story and any unused portion be kept with the traveler – I don’t know how per diem is determined, but not all have the eat the “steak” for dinner mentality.
on a brighter note, a wondeful Birfday and day to Mrs. C!
What I would like to see is that DAGS make a sustained push to recover funds from certain State employyes who have been over paid and has yet to refund said funds – I hear tell it’s into the millions – are they afraid of the union?
The Army had a rule that if an overpayment was made, that amount is deducted from immediate future monthly pay – as a pay officer, I experienced many such circumstances as my men would take the money and spend it knowing that the Army will deduct from their next paycheck – I felt sorry for families, but there was nothing I could do by counsel my men to give back the overpayment immediately – wives would come in or call, crying and begging – I could only tell them to talk with their husbands who spent the $$$.
A-House,
Sent you an email! For your enjoyment!
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The Warrior Beat » Blog Archive | Easter | UH football, University of Hawaii athletics | staradvertiser.com | Honolulu, Hawaii
If you put it that way, I don’t think $22 smack-a-roni’s is going to make a bit of a difference in Hawaii nei. It doesn’t matter if a dollar change is left over, everything is accountable when it comes to tax payers dollars, donations, ect. Everything has to go through the proper chain of command and everything has to be accounted for. There’s a huge difference between the tax payers dollars and a husband and wife. Both the husband and wife can forgive each other, the tax payers won’t. If that dollar change went into someone’s pocket, or used for other purposes without approval, who should say that its ok for that person to hold onto or use that money for any other purpose without record or accountability. Federal funding is always lost when it is not used by many programs who don’t meet the deadlines. Forcing them to wait longer and re-apply again.
Per dieum is like a salary/benefit.. you can’t take it back after it’s been paid… as far as any left over from budgetted amounts, if they start asking for the balance, then the staff will start to overspend, instead… then ask that the buget be raised. Always happens that way. Look at the schools. When monies budgeted aren’t spent, the State takes it away the next year, so now all the schools overspend.
ST,
If the governor did his travel expenses in the manner you describe, the public would scream. A coach’s expenses should not be any different.
mih,
Per diem is not like salary or a benefit. It is not reported on your W-2.
It’s part of the cost of travel for an event (conference, athletic event, etc.). Most organizations have a chart that is created from researching the cost of hotels & food by city. The per diem is set for the city you are traveling to. I’ve operated under both procedures: give back the excess or keep the per diem advance. If a department is under budget constraints, wouldn’t it make sense to return the overage?
I think it is one thing if you are allotted something like $50/day for food and you don’t spend it all and keep the rest.
It’s completely different if you don’t go on a trip at all and try to keep the money that was meant to pay for that trip. I’m guessing the amount would be in the thousands compared to a couple hundred here and there.
Slugger, I worked for three companies that paid per dieums whenever I was on the road. I was never asked for receipts on items paid for using my per dieum and never asked to return any. I as given a budget for everything else and kept receipts. I returned any advances I received for the budget and also has a separate entertainment account. I’ve alwaus thought of per dieums as an adjustment to my pay whenever I was on the road.
Working for the State of Hawaii and seeing it first hand, this is how I see the money problem described.
The office I worked for had a certain budget and if we were under budget, we would spend the extra money on all kinds of stupid things to use the money. I thought that was really dumb, but my boss explained it to me. He said if we don’t spend the money, then the next year when they request money the State will say you didn’t need the money so here is less money this year. Which is the big problem, you don’t punish the people that go under budget and are honest. When the State needs to cut budgets, they will look at the people that didn’t use the money then punish them instead of punishing the people that kept going over budget.
Yep, thats pretty much how the government works. If a department is allocated a certain amount and they have an overage, they need to spend it before the end of the fiscal year or risk losing it the following year. It’s easier to spend the money allocated and more difficult to increase the department budget.
Had nightmares last night after watching Kevin Ware go down in the Louiville – Duke game. I think that was worst than seeing Theisman go done after LT hit him.
Great Morning All!
Yippee! Lent is over….can watch football again! 🙂
Let’s Go Warriors!
@#61 rage777: You are correct, however, this is pervasive throughout government and large industry. The main reason I think is that the so-called budget people are not true analysts. They are usually only book keepers in my opinion. If they truly analyzed what is being spent and how it is used, there would be less problems. The attitude you mentioned has been around for a long long time. You are right, that those that are fiscally responsible do not get recognized. I have seen people get rewarded for spending 99% of their budget…stupid but true. That’s the bureaucratic way. BTW, I know of a few budget people who truly analyzed their accounts but they were the very small minority.
64 – does that mean thw return of Chicken Grease? … lol
Egads.
Good Monday Greetings Folks!
Man, its cold! Keep warm and have a good one!
#64
you gave up watching football for lent? congratulations on your sacrifice in pursuit of your spiritual goals.
btw, are you related to the boxers from waianae?
Instead of UH saying that’s how it works, shouldn’t they change the culture?
UH Ice Hockey Team!!
Ka Leo’s April Fool’s Day joke. Thought I would share because it’s funny.
http://www.kaleo.org/sports/uh-announces-warrior-ice-hockey-team/article_c5ef6226-9a7f-11e2-812a-001a4bcf6878.html