Tuition, fees avert payless paydays at NMC

Tuition and other fees collected from Northern Marianas College students will be saving its personnel from the threat of payless paydays, which is now being experienced by employees of other agencies because of declining government revenue and collections.

The Board of Regents adopted yesterday a supplemental budget amounting to $836,160 that will cover the salaries of personnel and utility consumption until September.

Chief financial and administrative officer Roger Madriaga told the board yesterday that the college already knew since the start of fiscal year 2011 that it will experience a shortfall because it was only budgeted at $4.1 million for personnel and operation. Of that amount, about $300,000 is for utilities. NMC has close to 200 personnel, including federally funded workers. In the middle of the fiscal year, the administration implemented another 7.8 percent budget cut, including at the autonomous NMC.

To save NMC personnel from payless paydays and for the college to continue paying for its utility expenses, Madriaga said that they have to find $836,160 to cover the shortfall. He recommended that the college tap some funds from its tuition and fee accounts in order to survive until the end of the fiscal year.

“If appropriated funds cannot cover for the shortfall, we have to look for another source to pay our employees and we decided to tap into our tuition and fees, otherwise there would be payless paydays for our employees,” Madriaga told the board.

NMC has two funding sources: appropriation from the Legislature, most of which is spent on personnel; and tuition and fees, which covers non-personnel expenditures.

It was earlier disclosed that the college generated a total of $4.227 million from this year’s tuition and fees from students.

Madriaga also disclosed yesterday that the Finance Department is behind four times in transferring the college’s allotments. “If we fall behind in transfers, we must also come up with our own cash [from tuition and fees] to pay our personnel. We must maintain a positive cash flow, otherwise our checks will bounce.”

According to regent Frank Rabauliman, Madriaga’s recommendation went through full review and discussion at the committee level.

NMC president Sharon Hart reported to the board that the college is still in austerity and, in tapping some funds from tuition and fees, the management has opted to suspend some programs and activities to accommodate the pressing need of ensuring that employees will be paid on time.