NMC to restructure •College board chairman says overhaul may involve firings

Under fire for alleged mismanagement of public funds, the Northern Marianas College is likely to face a top-to-bottom restructuring that will eliminate ungraded positions as well as cut personnel costs as part of the bailout proposal for the financially-troubled institution.

Manuel Sablan, chair of the Board of Regents, yesterday said he is awaiting an opinion from the NMC legal counsel Jesus Borja whether the policy-making body has the authority to serve termination notices to employees falling under the non-civil service category.

He did not indicate, however, the number people who will get the walking papers. He also declined to name high-ranking officials who may be sacked as a result of the board’s decision.

Sablan announced the plan during the resumption of the House oversight hearing on NMC yesterday, saying the decision was reached at an emergency board meeting last Friday.

It also came in the wake of several findings uncovered by the House committee on Health, Education and Welfare which backed up charges of funds mismanagement and inconsistency in the implementation of college policies.

According to the chief NMC regent, the board will have 90 days to straighten NMC’s weak financial standing under the proposal to trim off excess fat in its personnel.

The oversight, which began in January, has been grilling college officials for some personnel actions that the HEW panel has claimed to have drained dwindling cash resources of CNMI’s lone higher learning institution.

“Some of these issues require actions for us to take and the board has the authority to do it. We don’t want to wait,” Sablan told in an interview during a break from the whole-day hearing.

“I felt that we have to revisit… and address issues regarding management, employment, compensation and contracts with the objective of really strengthening the college,” he said.

To ensure objectivity in the elimination of some college positions, Sablan pointed out they would hire an independent professional advisor who will assist the board in carrying out the plan.

Administrative purge: But he assured they will not do anything that will affect ongoing students, maintaining most of the changes will occur in the administration.

“The idea here is to further strengthen the services to the students, in terms of instructions,” the NMC official said.

When asked if high-ranking officials, such as the president, vice presidents and directors, will be part of the overhaul, Sablan said they have yet to identify which positions will be removed.

“I don’t want to look at people… I feel that we can always find people to fill in a position,” he explained, “but my concern also is that we have to make sure that if we make a decision, it’s done objectively and there is no personality or any of these things. It will be strictly professional.”

Under the appropriation measure for FY 1999 passed by the legislature last September, about 34 ungraded positions received funding for the current fiscal year.

The number may have been slashed since the college has adopted a reorganization plan late last year following drastic budget cuts by the Tenorio administration due to worsening economic crisis on the island.

Current spending level for NMC is pegged at close to $9 million — almost all of which is used to pay salary of more than 200 employees, but the state college has drawn protest in recent years from the government for constant shortfall in its allotment.

NMC officials have blamed the problem to alleged failure by the legislature to set aside funds as set forth in the Constitution.