NMTI takes out $300K loan to stay afloat

The Northern Marianas Trades Institute acquired a loan from the Torres administration last Friday to stay afloat and keep its doors open for another two months.

In an interview with NMTI chief executive officer Agnes McPhetres, she said that she met with Gov. Ralph DLG Torres last Thursday to talk about possible ways out of their current financial crisis.

“The governor came to see me last Thursday and we met and he said ‘I’ll give you $300,000,’ which he gave me last Friday, otherwise we would have had to close the institution,” she said.

With the $300,000, McPhetres said that the institution can continue operations for another two months or about three payrolls.

McPhetres made clear that the $300,000 is not an allocated funding for the institution but a loan that she’d have to return once the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker program funding is disbursed to them.

“…Once we get our CW funding, I have to pay back the $300,000. It’s a loan,” she said.

Had Torres not responded in time, over 20 employees would have been let go and over 300 students would have stopped their trades education, McPhetres said.

“I will work with [the Legislature] after the holidays on how we can expedite that [CW funding] so we will not be in this status anymore. This is not a way to run an institution. I’m hoping that this will not be repeated. I’m hoping that the funding will be expedited so that we don’t have to worry about the future because this is now a government entity; it’s not like when it was a nonprofit,” she said.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker program funding is NMTI’s only financial source for ongoing program operations as they do not receive local appropriations in the annual budget.

In an earlier letter to the administration, McPhetres stated that they have been informed by Labor Secretary Vicky Benavente that she is currently unable to act on CW disbursements as there is no law giving Benavente expenditure authority over the funds.

Benavente has sought legislative intervention to rectify the situation with regard to fund distribution and management but, with the passage of such a legislation demanding time, a need for a more immediate intervention was sought through the governor.