120 instead of 75 for Interior-funded grants workshop

From an initial cap of 75, the number of those who registered for a comprehensive grants workshop that starts today surged to 120 and others may still be on a waitlist, Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP) said yesterday.

“It shows that people here have seen the importance of having increased knowledge of federal grants which now exceed the local budget. Without federal grants, the CNMI would not have been able to fund a lot of programs and services. We are very happy with the number of participants and we had to cap it to 120 because we could only accommodate so many people,” Sablan told Saipan Tribune in a phone interview.

In fiscal year 2010, the federal grants the CNMI received totaled $190 million. Sablan said the total, audited federal grants to the CNMI for fiscal year 2011 has yet to be known.

The CNMI’s local revenue available for government operations is $102 million in fiscal year 2012. The previous year’s was $122 million.

“Federal grants have exceeded local revenues [for government operations or budget], and they continue to be an important source of funding for the CNMI. That’s why people here in government and private sector need to know how to identify, apply for, and manage federal grants that Congress makes available to us,” Sablan added.

Sablan is hosting the comprehensive grants workshop funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs. The workshop is provided free of charge to participants from the public and private sectors.

The workshop starts today from 7:30am to 11:30am in Room D-1 of Northern Marianas College in As Terlaje.

It is a series of eight half-day classes over two weeks. The first four classes are from Feb. 21 to Feb. 24 and the second four classes are from Feb. 27 to March 1. Classes run from 7:30am to 11:30am each day.

People from Rota and Tinian will also be able to participate through videoconferencing technology, Sablan said.

Sablan thanked Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs Tony Babauta for funding the workshop, NMC president Sharon Hart for providing the classroom for the workshop, and Charles Hester, who will conduct the workshop, and others supporting the event.

Hester, a certified public accountant who has extensive federal experience with grants and audits, will conduct the workshop under the auspices of Graduate School USA, one of the federal government’s continuing education providers of choice.

Topics covered will include planning, obtaining, and successfully completing grants and contracts; administrative requirements and cost principles for grants and other agreements; and effective fiscal management of grants.