Scholarship board to address collection woes
The CNMI Scholarship Advisory Board is looking at using an effective collection strategy to recoup an estimated $2 million worth of unpaid student loans which the Scholarship Office had approved to support government scholars pursue college careers.
Scholarship Board Chair Roman C. Benavente said it is imminent that the advisory panel establish an “enforcement capability” to recover the funds as not a single cent has been retrieved since the Scholarship Office started granting the loans.
The agency has yet to collect the outstanding amount covering the periods 1995 through 1998 since all loans made before 1995 has been deemed “forgiven.”
“The board is aware of the circumstances we are in and we will be looking into the issue,” said Mr. Benavente.
He added the board will certainly seek the governor’s assistance to establish within the Scholarship Office an organized collection system to retrieve the funds.
Retired Scholarship Office Administrator Hilaria K. Santos earlier said that as hard as it is to locate students with pending financial liabilities to the agency, it is equally a challenge to initiate collection efforts in lieu of additional staff who would focus on the task.
The office personnel, as it is, already takes on various roles ranging from scholarship awarding, student tracking, and distribution of grants to accommodate other job descriptions.
With Ms. Santos’ recent retirement, the agency’s employees have since been laid with additional responsibilities.
The former administrator said it would take an immense amount of time to study and create and effective an collection tool that would work for the entire Scholarship Office.
Ms. Santos had explained that in order for the agency to determine how much the students owe, they would have to backtrack on past records and draw up a systematized mode of payment.
Back in 1986 when the Scholarship Office was still under the Northern Marianas College, an attempt was made to start a loan collection project which unfortunately was not launched to a full-scale.
Under the student loan agreement, recipients are supposed to pay in legal monthly installations one year after the date of actual termination of formal studies, and every month thereafter until the total principal and interest is fully paid.
As a moving consideration stipulated under the loan policy, the borrower or scholar agrees that at the completion of the program of studies for which the loan was granted, the borrower will reside within the Commonwealth and apply the skills or knowledge acquired during the program of studies for a period equal to that for which financial assistance was rendered.
