Panel to resume fund mess probe

The House committee on Health, Education and Welfare will resume its oversight hearing on the Northern Marianas College on Wednesday amid warning from government officials of deeper financial crisis facing CNMI’s lone higher learning institution.

The hearing, to be held on February 3 at the House chamber, is expected to investigate into allegations of mismanagement of NMC funds as well as the scholarship program that drew flak at the start of the oversight last Thursday.

Testifying before the House panel, several government officials also underscored a recurring budget shortfall that has dogged the state college for the past few years and aggravated by the shrinking public revenues.

Mike Sablan, special advisor for finance and budget, has blamed the problem to overall tight financial condition of the CNMI government and to management and policy of NMC and the scholarship’s office.

He disclosed that several finance officials had met with the college 20 times over the course of 10 months in an effort to resolve the shortfall and seek immediate solution to the problem.

At least $1.3 million in personnel costs are anticipated as NMC deficit by the end of this fiscal year. Sablan said this is a serious concern because the Tenorio administration does not expect to supplement or re-program appropriations to any government agency.

“I am confident that there is a workable solution, but this will involve all of us working together for tough and painful decisions,” Sablan told the hearing.

Finance Sec. Lucy DLG Nielsen likewise stressed the need to seek ways to meet the funding shortfall as the college faces reduction in their appropriation to pay the salary of its faculty and staff.

NMC received some $7.8 million under the 1999 spending level, which Nielsen insisted, is more than enough what is mandated under the law.

Some $408,870 is needed to carry the college through the second quarter alone to meet its various financial obligations, including payroll and ongoing programs, according to the finance chief.

But NMC officials, defending the college from alleged mismanagement, slammed failure by the government to allocate the budget they had requested to fund programs and operational costs.

“We have been working diligently in the past few years in trying to live within our means,” President Agnes M. McPhetres said, adding that they are currently restructuring the college to trim down expenditures.

She took exception in particular on the projected shortfall this year, saying that the college has kept 54 positions vacant and has focused on essential needs for the nearly 1,000 students attending NMC.

Manuel Sablan, chair of the Board of Regent, said he was “disturbed” by the range of the financial crisis besetting the college, noting that since June last year they have moved to reduce expenditures, including officials travels and freeze hiring.

“NMC has not received that kind of support for the last 16 years,” he told the hearing, in apparent justification of the budgetary constraint that has continued to strike the state college since its inception in 1981.

The hearing on Wednesday, the second in a series of oversight by HEW, will aim to shed light on these accusations and provide solution to the problems identified by the House panel, according to committee members.