NMC hopes to work with Labor

The Northern Marianas College looks forward to working with the Inos administration and its partners to continue to address workforce needs, dean of Administration and Resource Development David Attao told Saipan Tribune.

Attao was responding to questions regarding Gov. Eloy S. Inos’ proposal to allocate 100 percent of contract worker fee funds to the Department of Labor.

Under the governor’s budget proposal, no CW funds are allotted to education institutions like the college or the Public School System. Instead, the Labor Secretary will administer these funds, which amounts to $1.7 million a year, in collaboration with the college and PSS.

Specifically, Inos is asking the Legislature to suspend Public Law 15-5, which allocates these funds to PSS and NMC. He says these funds will be restricted solely to ongoing vocational education curricula and program development.

Attao said he has not formally seen the proposal to allocate these funds to the secretary of Labor, but added that NMC has a great relationship with the CNMI Department of Labor.

“There are some parameters that entities must meet to receive funding from the CW fees, one being that such entity needs to be an education and training provider, and perhaps CNMI DOL qualifies in this regard,” he said.

“As seen in the [annual CW] reports, NMC relies on these funds to help defray qualified expenses and keeps programs operating on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota,” he said.

Attao said the CW funds have helped NMC survive through the financial shortages that the CNMI government has been going through. He said losing access to such funds will impede the college’s efforts in helping address the CNMI’s workforce needs.

But he also painted a bigger picture, saying the problem the CNMI faces is the same problem the college, the Northern Marianas Technical Institute, PSS, Labor, and the administration faces—a “multi-million to billion dollar problem” imposed on the CNMI through U.S. Public 110-229. This law will essentially expire the contract worker program in the CNMI.

Attao said the law has the CNMI replacing “contract workers in our communities.”

“Yet we are all underfunded as a community to do so, within a short period of time,” he said.

He said data derived from the CNMI Department of Commerce and CNMI Department of Labor shows that what NMC uses CW funds for to provide services in business, nursing, and targeted trades is in line with the needs of the CNMI as a whole.

He thanked the administration and Legislature for “providing us such funding and we look forward to working with them and our partners for continued support.”