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NMC saved $1 million in personnel expenditures
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Posted on Sep 01 1999
The Northern Marinas College has saved more than $1.06 million in personnel expenses during Fiscal 999 as a result of its reorganization, according to a top college official.
Ramon Villagomez, chairman of the NMC Board of Regents, said the college has been saving a great deal since it started observing austerity at the institution.
He clarified an earlier press report that NMC saved only $23,000 from its austerity measures.
“I believe that NMC did its best to reduce its personnel costs which helped the CNMI government stay within its budget forecast in FY 1999,” Villagomez said in a letter to Senate and House leaders.
The NMC reorganization involved the scrapping of several positions which resulted in the dismissal of a few college officials and several employees.
The FY 1999 personnel budget for NMC received initial appropriation of $7.9 million. However, due to declining government revenues, the Office of Management and Budget reduced the budget for all government agencies, including NMC, by 13.41 percent.
Rep. Heinz Hofschneider, chairman of the House Committee of Health, Education and Welfare, earlier urged NMC to reduce its tuition charges for local students suggesting that the federal and local governments’ assistance should be enough to raise money for operations.
Villagomez, however, argued that NMC is virtually dependent on government for its existence.
“The NMC is not a money making private institution. It does not depend on tuition for its entire expenses and has no goal of making some profits,” Villagomez said in an earlier letter to Senate and House leaders.
“Instead, the legislature appropriates EAP money which is given to students to pay for tuition, which is then used by the college to pay for its operations expenses,” he added. (MCM)
