Deleon Guerrero: NMC’s $18.7M budget request not a wish list

Galvin Deleon Guerrero

Northern Marianas College president Dr. Galvin Deleon Guerrero said yesterday that the $18.7 million budget they are requesting for the college for fiscal year 2024 is not a wish list but is what they actually need.

Additionally, Frankie Eliptico, who is the NMC vice president of administration and advancement, emphasized that the economic impact of all federally-funded construction projects for NMC is approximately $200 million that will be going into the CNMI economy.

Speaking at the Ways and Means Committee hearing at the House of Representatives, Deleon Guerrero said their $18,781,360 appropriation request is what they need and that they are not high-balling it.

“We’re not kind of entering a negotiation phase where we come in high and then you come in low and then we meet somewhere in the middle,” he said, adding that NMC has demonstrated clear, responsible financial stewardship, with 15 years of clean audits.

Deleon Guerrero they were recognized for the recent accreditation visit and evaluation which gave NMC an eight-year accreditation term, the longest in the college’s history.

He said the accrediting team and the accrediting commission are both mindful of how they were able to take their limited financial resources and manage them well in such a way that they never ran a deficit, and they paid all their bills on time. “And we continue to provide quality services to our community. So we come before you today to let you know that you can trust us with your investment,” the NMC president told the committee, chaired by Rep. Ralph N. Yumul (Ind-Saipan).

Deleon Guerrero said they understand that the CNMI government has very limited financial resources, but it is their hope that by the end of their presentation, the committee will see that the return on investment in NMC is exponential for the CNMI.

In his presentation, Eliptico provided an update on the NMC buildings that are coming up. NMC received millions of dollars in federal funding for the NMC buildings that were obliterated by Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018.

By really looking at it, Eliptico said, the CNMI will get $200 million for the $20 million investment in NMC, taking into account the construction costs, the direct costs, the indirect costs, and the induced costs.

“I hope that you see it that way.  That NMI is not an expenditure, but an investment. And it’s not just whether we can do construction, we need people to run procurement, we need people to run finance, we need people to run [human resources] to be able to hire people needed to push these projects along,” he said.

Other NMC officials also conducted presentations about various programs and services that they offer.