NMC board bypassed •Some raises made without board authority, panel hears

The House committee on Health, Education and Welfare pounded on the controversial pay increase for few employees of the Northern Marianas College during the resumption of its oversight hearing yesterday, uncovering arbitrary decisions made without approval of the Board of Regents as well as actions contrary to existing laws.

Despite the austerity measures implemented by the government, the state college has continued to overshoot its budget in what HEW chair Rep. Heinz Hofschneider blamed to mismanagement of funds — allegations repeatedly denied by NMC officials.

The hearing, the fifth in a series of investigation into the cash-strapped college and the government scholarship program in nearly a month, made several disclosures backing up the charges, including the hefty raise in the salary of some high-ranking officials.

At yesterday’s hearing, the panel grilled for the third time NMC Personnel Director Kohne Ramon and Comptroller Lawrence Harris on “alarming” actions that might have compounded the financial trouble besetting CNMI’s lone higher learning institution.

Ramon practically admitted granting a retroactive raise in late 1997 to Aniceto Mundo, administrator for NMC campus on Rota, prior to his retirement while his two-year contract had yet to expire.

This was the bone of contention pressed by the panel at the hearing last Thursday, as Hofschneider noted that other retiring officials never received the benefits which is based upon the discretion of the college administration.

When asked who initiated the move, Ramon claimed his office processed the personnel action, but did not owe up to the discrepancy.

The signatures of both the personnel director and President Agnes McPhetres appeared in the document handed over to the committee. The top NMC official did not attend the hearing who was reportedly sick yesterday.

According to Hofschneider, payroll records at the college showed that Mundo’s salary was never rolled back to the initial amount before the increase despite previous testimony by some officials that they had suspended implementation of a new compensation plan early last year due to the ongoing cost-cutting measures of Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio’s administration.

He also revealed that Harris ordered the college accounting department to release $64,000 from revenues sourced from tuition and fees for payment of the roll back to some NMC employees.

Not aware: The findings provoked angry words from a visibly surprised NMC chair, asking the House committee to call off the hearing and allow the board to look into the problem.

“This is news to me. I am not aware of this,” said chief Regent Manuel Sablan. “We have to take actions. It won’t take the legislature for a hearing. We will do it ourselves.”

Harris also disclosed that his office was “instructed to follow procedure” when the salary raise was paid at the start of the current fiscal year, using revenues generated from tuition and fees to cover the shortfall in government appropriations.

Sablan insisted that “nobody” had been authorized to implement the board-sanctioned pay plan.

“I want to get down to the bottom of this because what you are alleging here is that the college is operating under the new pay plan,” he told Hofschneider.

The HEW chair, however, maintained some officials have failed to provide definite answers, who continue to pinpoint others when asked about the panel’s findings.

“It’s very clear that someone, in the absence of a board’s knowledge, decided to authorize the release of funds to pay back those who were rolled back, which is contradictory to the board’s policy,” Hofschneider said.

He also claimed the compensation package that provided increase between $1,000 to $5,000 among few select employees is being unfairly applied, noting that Barbara Moir, vice president for instruction, did not get a raise while others in equal position did.

The comptroller, in fact, had received a 20 percent increase amid the tight financial situation of the CNMI government, an action Harris said was part of the re negotiations of his contract with NMC.

“Someone is acting irrespective of the law or policy. That is very alarming to me,” Hofschneider pointed out.

Aside from the pay plan, the committee also unfolded other findings that point to possible mismanagement of public funds and violations of laws and college policy, including:

– hiring of “adjunct” faculty on limited-term contract that goes beyond the employee ceiling alloted by the legislature as well as administrative staff which has side-stepped promotion of other personnel; and

– reprogramming of funds from operations to vocational education program which is showing deficit in the second quarter of FY 1999 and using revenues from tuition and fees for other purposed without informing the legislature as provided under the law.