NMASA asks for $486K budget from Legislature

The Northern Marianas Amateur Association is asking the Legislature for a budget of $486,665 for fiscal year 2013 to take over the operations of the Oleai Sports Complex from the Division of Sports and Recreation.

In the same April 27 letter to House Speaker Eli C. Cabrera (R-Saipan) and Senate President Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) where the CNMI sports governing body reiterated its statutory responsibility to operate the sports facility, NMASA president Michael A. White broke down and explained where its budget request would be spent.

White, for instance, detailed that $60,029 will go toward the wages of the facility’s administrative assistants, while $40,000 will pay for the salary of the Oleai Sports Complex director.

The NMASA president said the salary request for the facility’s director is equivalent to the current salary of the chief of the Division of Sports and Recreation, while the amount requested for his staff will cover the salaries of three staff members.

“Staff members will be responsible for supervising the facilities at the Susupe [Oleai] Sports Complex at all hours when they are in use, including evenings; and providing secretarial and administrative assistance to the executive director,” said White in the letter.

In all, wages and salaries requested totaled $129,265, which included $17,312 for annual leave payouts, $6,2002 for social security contributions, $4,001 for retirement contributions, $1,450 for Medicare contributions, $210 for WCC contributions, and $60 for life insurance.

The biggest line item request, however, was for travel at $150,000, which will partly cover expenses the CNMI will incur to send athletes to off-island competitions.

“The figure budgeted for travel principally consists of funds for off-island sports travel. At a hearing at the Legislature earlier this year, NMASA was asked to take over the function of allocating funds for this purpose, so that the Legislature could avoid the necessity of dealing with, and possibly appropriating funds for off-island travel by a large number of groups each year. Once these funds are appropriated, the Legislature would no longer have to deal with those requests, and NMASA would be responsible for receiving and deciding upon requests for off-island travel expenses,” White said in justifying the amount request for travel expenses.

The rest of the breakdown for NMASA’s budget request is as follows: $72,000 for utilities; $42,000 for cleaning services; $36,000 for grounds maintenance; $9,000 for vehicles; $6,000 for equipment; and $2,400 for communications.