BOE: PSS gets $50K every two weeks

The Public School System has been getting the additional funding they requested since April but on a staggered basis according to the Board of Education.

BOE chair Roman C. Benavente said the government is now remitting gradually to PSS its additional funding request based on the resolution that earlier approved the reprogramming of $1.1 million for the unanticipated budget shortfall at the school system.

Benavente said the PSS is receiving $50,000 from the Finance Office every two weeks as part of the $1.1 million additional budget request to be used for its “all others” expenses supposedly until this month. He said he would like to clarify to the public that they are indeed receiving money from the local government.

“We’re not given the $1.1 million as a lump sum,” Benavente said. In a meeting the Board had attended Wednesday, Benavente said the government has been trying its best to provide funds for PSS.

He said during the meeting Gov. Juan N. Babauta highlighted the local government’s financial situation and in spite of that the government still tries to manage to put education in the forefront of their operations.

The $50,000 staggered payment every two weeks is used for the “all others” expenses of the schools. Benavente said the remittance has been going on for almost two months now. “We’ve been getting the money for almost two months now,” he said.

He said the gradual payment procedure gives ample time for the government to collect funds for its agencies.

Education commissioner Rita H. Inos and Benavente had told the government in April that PSS needed at least $700,000 by the end of FY 2005 for the following items but a resolution was approved to add $400,000 more for the maintenance and repairs in schools:

– $200,000 for payment of annual leaves;
– $100,000 for payment of school security guards;
– $100,000 for bus repair and maintenance;
– $50,000 for fuel of school buses;
– $40,000 for trash collection; and
– $610,000 for minor repairs and maintenance in schools that should have been completed prior to the opening of schools in August.

Of the $610,000 that the PSS needs to repair schools and function up to this month, the Department of Finance could only come up with a fourth of that amount—$150,000—which was issued to PSS first week of August this year.