Chapter 10-I-L
Managing the Treasury


It surely must be obvious that proper management of the organization's treasuries, at the various levels, will be absolutely crucial to the organization's success. We all can surely see that an organization that holds itself forth as dedicated to a moral cause must demonstrate impeccable integrity in its control and management of its funds. Even a SINGLE impropriety could very well be fatal to the group's purposes.

With that stark reality in mind, and knowing that human temptation is a constant factor where money is involved, we clearly must design multi-layered accounting practices that provide multiple and redundant layers of oversight. Every penny that flows into, or out of, the organization must be fully accounted for by multiple agencies of oversight of all treasuries at every level.

We also believe that the organization must labor to project an image of moral dedication on the part of its paid staff. A public perception should be created that people work for the organization out of dedication to its moral cause, not because it pays 'generous' salaries. We believe that staff members must be adequately paid, but at a level that is perceived as a 'stipend', so that there is a degree of sacrifice and service to the group's moral cause implied in the salary levels provided. We must remember what we think when we hear that people who work for well known charities earn opulent salaries of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. People must be paid salaries that can provide them with a dignified living, to be sure, but those salaries must be limited to a level that will be generally perceived as 'fair', but not overly 'generous'.

We have imagined that the day to day management of the Treasury will fall primarily to the Executive Branch, as far as just managing and accounting for the funds themselves, (managing and reconciling bank accounts, managing payables and receivables, managing investments of excess funds, etc), with layers of oversight provided from the other Branches, and with layers of oversight from every level over the treasuries of every other level in every Branch.

We imagine that the Executive Branch will administer the expenditure of money for the various purposes that the Legislative Branch has designated and allotted. But we imagine that in the actual disbursement of money for the purposes designated, all three branches of the organization’s government should equally share direct control of major expenditures. Provisions should require signatures from duly designated officers from each Branch to disburse major funds from or between the organization’s accounts.

It may seem unusual to some to assign a share of this function to the Judicial Branch, but this Branch, lacking a 'sheriff' to provide it with enforcement capacity, must have some means to enforce its decisions. Sharing physical control of the organization's funds, with the power to disburse or withhold funds, (by the requirement of its authorized signature for major funds to be disbursed), will provide it with the means to back up its decisions with the 'power of the purse'.
In the system we have imagined and described here, Local Citizens Groups will have direct control over substantial funds. This will provide Local Groups with considerable autonomy, but it will require stringent auditing of these funds.

To repeat, (for emphasis), there will be no factor that is more important to the organization’s success than the diligence and impeccable integrity that is applied to accounting for and disbursing its funds. Any hint of impropriety will rob the organization of the public trust on which it must be built.


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