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Inos: $50K not from $1.1M fund request
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Posted on Sep 26 2005
Commissioner of Education Rita H. Inos yesterday clarified that the staggered payment the Public School System has been receiving from the Department of Finance every two weeks has nothing to do with its $1.1 million additional funding request.
She said the PSS has not received a cent of the $1.1 million additional funding the school system has sought from the government as a budget supplement and pointed out that the $50,000 check per pay period it has been getting is actually part of the regular operations funds provided under the continuing resolution.
Inos said, though, that PSS appreciates receiving the funds, as it enables it to pay vendors for services to the school system.
For his part, PSS director of finance Richard Waldo confirmed that the government has yet to remit any monies the PSS has asked for under the additional funding request. He said all the money being remitted lately is for the “Fiscal 5” budget for the year.
“As far as we know it has not started yet,” Waldo said.
Waldo admitted, though, that, at the moment, they have no way of determining whether the money being remitted to them is actually for the additional funding request or not. He said they would only be able to make that determination once his department goes over its records thoroughly.
Waldo’s staff member verified the amount being remitted to the PSS and informed the Saipan Tribune that a few weeks ago the Finance Office transferred only $36,000 as opposed to the previous statements of BOE chair Roman C. Benavente, who said the Finance Office recently remitted an amount of $56,000.
Inos added that if the $1.1 million were transferred to the PSS this week, the issue would be “moot because the fiscal year ends this Friday.”
“This is the money that PSS desperately needed before school opened in August,” Inos added.
The $50,000 staggered payment every two weeks is used for the “all others” expenses of the schools.
Benavente said the gradual payment procedure gives ample time for the government to collect funds for its agencies.
