Regents oppose bill that seeks to remove NMC’s autonomy

The Board of Regents unanimously adopted yesterday a resolution that expresses its strong opposition to a bill that it said “singles out” the Northern Marianas College and would take away its autonomy.

House Bill 17-93, which proposes to amend existing statute to improve financial oversight over the college, is now on Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s desk, awaiting his signature.

The bill, authored by Rep. Stanley Torres, calls for the college to submit a detailed report to the Legislature regularly about its financial records and transactions. The bill was crafted after the Legislature failed to compel the college to furnish it with specific records sometime in 2009.

Based on the legislation, “the college only submits an annual report of accomplishments which for the 2003 fiscal year had just a two-page list of appropriations, and which for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 only provided one-page, pie-chart that had no financial details at all.”

Regents chair Juan Lizama said yesterday that even though NMC receives appropriation from the general fund, the college was created as an autonomous agency, governed by its own rules and policies.

“Nobody questions that the college receives funds from the Legislature or the governor [who sign the appropriation]…but the issue here is autonomy of the institution,” said Lizama.

Regent Malua Peter also said that she’s tired of defending the same old position with lawmakers despite having a series of meetings with them.

“I am really tired of this nonsense. We’ve been meeting and meeting with the Legislature…but what happened to these meetings?” she told colleagues. “It only tells us that whenever a representative is disappointed with someone [at NMC] they would come up with a bill to correct it.”

She pointed out that the bill’s author, Torres, had made it clear that the measure was intended for the previous NMC administration. Torres is a known critic of NMC, especially during the administration of Dr. Carmen Fernandez.

Personnel committee chair Andrew Orsini said that “keeping the college’s autonomy and free from any interference” was clearly pointed out by the accreditation commission as key to NMC retaining its accreditation. He hopes the resolution would convince the governor to junk the bill as it will further endanger the college’s stability.

“This will not stop. In fact, there’s another pending legislation about NMC…and whatever triggers all of this, I think we have long ways to go before we can make the ‘power that be’ understand about the college autonomy,” said regent William Torres.

He encouraged the board to conduct regular public forums to clear up misunderstandings and misconception about the institution.

Interim president Lorraine T. Cabrera, for her part, said the college is always willing to provide and share financial information with the Legislature. She described the bill as “unnecessary.”