ON PSS CIP PROJECTS BOE wants more power for Inos

The Board of Education is asking lawmakers to further expand the education commissioner’s controlling power over capital infrastructure money to include authority to enter into contracts for school projects.

The contracting power sought by board members for Education Commissioner the Rita H. Inos would be in addition to the House of Representatives’ proposal to give her expending authority over CIP funds.

At Friday’s meeting, the board approved a motion to formalize the proposal through a letter which will be sent to the Senate and House leadership, as well as to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio.

“The original intent of Art. 15 of the CNMI Constitution is to give the education board and the education commissioner full authority to create programs and monitor their own affairs,” said board member Tom Pangelinan.

“The legislature should give us the trust, responsibility, and accountability for what we do,” Pangelinan added.

Under the present setup, PSS and the Department of Public Works have a joint responsibility over CIP money allotted for school projects.

Constructions are being undertaken by the department, which signs contracts and expends the money.

PSS has its own CIP facility specialists who are tasked to monitor the projects through coordination with the public works department and the Office of Insular Affairs.

This setup was implemented when the previous education board chaired by Don Farrell requested that PSS be spared of the school construction responsibility so it could focus on its instructional roles and duties.

Last week, the House of representatives amended a law signed recently that appropriates $30 million for PSS infrastructure development plans.

One of the proposed amendments was to transfer the expenditure authority from the public works secretary to the education commissioner.

Pangelinan said assigning the financial and contracting responsibilities to PSS would entail accountability on the part of the education system.

“If someone is to blame, it would be us not DPW. If funds are misused, we are the ones who should be prosecuted,” Pangelinan said.

Bill Matson, PSS budget officer and federal program coordinator, said transferring the expending authority to the commissioner “would eliminate multiplicities in agencies involved in the payment system. This way, the payment processing would be more linear.”

Matson, however, said the measure is not clear on the role of the Commonwealth Development Authority, which was responsible for the sale of the $15.6 million bonds used to raise the local matching requirement. (MCM)