Kilili: Central govt owes PSS, NMC $10M

Apart from public schools, the islands’ community college is also owed a large amount by the central government, representing unremitted maintenance-of-effort funds due the institution, according to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan yesterday.

Sablan disclosed that the Inos administration owes both the Public School System and the Northern Marianas College a combined $10 million to date.

That maintenance-of-effort funding is a requirement of the U.S. Department of Education when it gave the Commonwealth $44 million in American Recovery Reinvestment Act funds in 2009. It mandates the local government to allocate a certain percentage of its annual budget on public education. That percentage is equivalent to 40 cents to $1 dollar or 25 percent of the overall CNMI government budget. The MOE must come from local funds.

In an interview yesterday, Sablan said that a ranking USDOE official is expected to arrive in the Commonwealth “very soon” and the MOE issue will be among the subjects that will be tackled with the islands’ officials and agencies.

“I hope this official would meet with our Legislature and explain to them the potential ramification of shortchanging our students,” said Sablan, who withheld the name of the federal official for now. The official is also set to visit the region.

In March this year, Sablan wrote Inos to remind him of the “serious implications” if the MOE rule is not met pursuant to the agreement signed by parties.

Sablan said yesterday that he received a response to this letter but he declined to elaborate on its content.

He told Saipan Tribune it is preferable that the MOE issue be worked out by parties before making any announcement of the final resolution.

“I understand that PSS and NMC are owed money…and I don’t think the administration denies that. It’s now a matter of where to find the money,” said Sablan.

Based on the books of the PSS, the central government owes the system some $7 million in unremitted MOE covering fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

According to Sablan, appropriated funds for both PSS and NMC continue to be reduced resulting in the shortchanging of students’ needs. Both PSS and NMC are recipients of federal grants. These funds, however, cannot be used to supplant the local resources, Sablan said.

PSS receives between $30 million and $32 million in federal aids each fiscal year, while NMC receives between $8 million and $12 million yearly. Both agencies ask for a higher local budget each fiscal year but are given much lower amounts, resulting in multiple challenges for students and staff.

Sablan vowed to continue to help both agencies in looking for additional and new funding from federal sources.

Sablan’s office was instrumental in getting $3.9 million in new funds for PSS beginning this fiscal year 2014. This fund, he said, will continue to go to PSS every fiscal year for the next 10 years.

He also wants to see the No Child Left Behind Act reauthorization to further help PSS and remains optimistic on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act to assist NMC.

Without the allocation of sufficient budgets for both PSS and NMC, Sablan said both institutions will continue to be challenged in the next fiscal year.

The Inos administration submitted a waiver request to the USDOE last year to change the formula used in calculating the MOE. There’s no information whether or not the USDOE accepted the request.

It was earlier disclosed that the CNMI may end up returning the $44 million in ARRA funds it got in 2009 if it fails to adhere to the MOE requirement.