Cash-trapped NMSA to lay off staff

In this file photo, Northern Marianas Sports Association staff clear the flooring of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium after it flooded due to Super Typhoon Yutu in October last year. (Saipan Tribune)

The Northern Marianas Sports Association will be laying off staff members, as it has no funds left for payroll.

During the NMSA board meeting last Thursday at the conference room of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium, executive director Tony Rogolifoi announced that NMSA has officially ran out of funding for payroll and will not be able to pay its workers until a funding source is identified. NMSA did not get an allocation from the government budget for fiscal year 2019-2020.

“We’re broke. We have nothing. Right now, as far as payroll is concerned, we don’t have money for it. I have to release employees for now because we cannot pay them because we’re out of money. It’s pretty much on a voluntary basis that we’re here,” he said.

Rogolifoi informed the board that he met with the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation last week and Rep. John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan) and Rep. Ivan Blanco (R-Saipan) assured him that they have been working diligently to identify a funding source for NMSA, but the missing piece to get the wheels turning is a thorough report that has yet to be submitted.

According to NMSA treasurer John Hirsh, NMSA is still working on the reports. The group’s board members believed that they were ready for submission last week.

Hirsh then explained that, as NMSA’s treasurer, he wants to ensure the accuracy of the reports because he, along with their certified public accountant, are the ones who will defend the numbers when presented to the Legislature. So if his CPA is not confident with the format of the reports, then it cannot be submitted.

“If my CPA says that this information is not in a format that he is confident with, I can’t present that to the legislature and the government, because I’m going to need him up at the Legislature to help interpret these numbers and explain them to the community,” Hirsh said.

Hirsh informed the board that the reports are, in fact, still far from being completed and it is still indefinite when it will be submitted to SNILD for review.

“We met as a board last week and we kind of got to the end of the finish line and the reports were done. It was literally a matter of putting in the executive summaries and placing the information. What we did was we sent it back to our CPA one more time because ultimately this is going to the Legislature. We’re volunteers and if we have to go up to the Legislature and defend these numbers, we have to have a high level of confidence that we understand what they mean and that we can interpret them,” Hirsh said.

Volunteers
Rogolifoi did not disclose how many staff they are letting go, but said that those who will stay will work as volunteers.

The NMSA executive directed said that because there are prior commitments to various groups using the facilities at the sports complex, they must keep them open even if it means he and one other staff will shoulder the maintenance work until they get funding.

“They (lawmakers) are trying to help but again, the process (getting funding) will take time and I feel so bad because I have to release people and it might leave only two of us here as volunteers,” Rogolifoi said.

NMSA has some funding left from its lottery earnings and membership fees, but they are used for athletes and officials’ participation in off-island competitions and maintenance of the Oleai Sports Complex. Payroll has been covered by the government since 2014 when NMSA was assigned as caretaker of the facility, but no funds were allotted for the new fiscal year due to the government’s belt-tightening measures.

NMSA needs its staff, especially when the Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded repair work at the complex starts next year in preparation for the Commonwealth’s hosting of the 2021 Pacific Mini Games.