Transfer of PSS funds to CUC questioned

A recent reallocation of $1.6 million from the Public School System’s personnel and “all others” funds to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is being called “underhanded” by the then-PSS Education Commissioner.

On July 10, Craig Garrison, then acting Commissioner, met with Finance Secretary Eloy Inos to discuss PSS’ outstanding payments to CUC.

Garrison, the vice principal at Saipan Southern High School, said that during the discussion, Inos said he wanted to use PSS’ surplus funds to repay PSS’ past debts to the utility company.

“Well, I said, ‘I don’t have a problem with excess funds being used, but before you go ahead, you crunch your numbers and I’ll have my finance department crunch our numbers,” Garrison said. “There was no number crunching, no information shared.”

In an e-mail sent later that day, Inos outlined the transfer, stating there would be sufficient funds to cover normal payroll expenditures through the end of the fiscal year. He found there would be $668,000 left over in the “all others” fund category and $764,000 in the personnel category, according to the e-mail.

However, according to a copy of the e-mail, Garrison did not receive it until Aug. 4, when Inos’ assistant forwarded it to him after he asked repeatedly for it, Garrison said. The original e-mail address had been typed incorrectly.

Garrison said he began asking about the $1. 6 million transfer after PSS acting Finance Director Lori Grizzard called CUC to ask about wattage usage and a “CUC representative thanked her for the contribution,” Garrison said. That was the first he had heard about the transfer, he said.

“The discussion was we were going to both crunch numbers, but that didn’t happen,” Garrison added.

On Friday, Inos said he discussed the situation with Garrison and advised him PSS needed to pay the expenditures, and as a result, the money was transferred to CUC.

Inos said he looked at the projected payroll through the end of the fiscal year and “saw there were funds available,” adding that his decision is supported by PSS’ ability to pay for teacher leave.

After Garrison was forwarded the e-mail on Aug. 4, he responded with an e-mail pointing out the incorrect address and stating he looked forward to working “towards equity and fairness in transparency” with the Finance Department.

During a PSS Board of Education meeting last month, the reallocation of the $1.6 million was raised because the board was unaware of the transfer.

When asked if there would be a surplus, BOE chair Lucy Blanco-Maratita said yesterday some money might have remained since the start of school was delayed.

“But not surplus as we still have operations and utilities cost that were underfunded; we also have employees’ benefits and other personnel obligations that we need to take care of,” she said in an e-mail.

Meanwhile, PSS still owes CUC an additional $1.8 million for past utilities, said CUC executive director Antonio Muña.

Muña said he realizes PSS has its own budget constraints and he is trying to be patient, but the payments are necessary with CUC’s current financial issues.

When asked if the outstanding payments could affect CUC’s ability to pay the more than $500,000 to Aggreko for the emergency generators in less than a month, he said, “It’s really important. There’s no denying that. It’s really important that all customers’ billings are addressed…we’ve assured payment and work with them to see what can be done to realize it.”