THE Northern Marianas Technical Institute has not received guidance from the Office of Management and Budget regarding $220,384 in Compact Impact funds provided to NMTI, interim chief executive officer Jodina Attao said on Thursday.
In a board of trustees meeting, Attao said NMTI had been given the funds but was not provided with any guidelines on how the funds were to be spent despite numerous requests made to OMB.
“The only thing that they told me verbally was to spend it on instructor salary and educational materials…. So as of now, what we’re doing is, because of the lack of CW funds and local appropriations, we are getting salary from the Compact Impact funds, but we will be reimbursing these funds,” Attao said.
She noted that NMTI has until 2023 to spend the Compact Impact funds.
In the NMTI treasurer’s report, as of Thursday, the institute had $90,329.51 in its local accounts from fiscal year 2021 and received $0 from local appropriation in FY 2022.
The institute received $2,000 in Educational Tax Credit, or ETC, donations, bringing its total local funds to $92.329.51.
NMTI incurred $19,003.86 in expenses, however.
As for its federal accounts, NMTI had $42,746.77 from FY 2021 and received zero dollars in CW funds in FY 2022.
With the Compact Impact funds, its federal accounts balance comes out to a total of $263,130.77.
However, NMTI has incurred $57,616 in expenses from its federal accounts.
In an overview and description of expenses, Attao and board treasurer Carmelita Faisao reported that the local account expenses incurred were for personnel, contractual, and supply purposes.
Expenses on salary and wages to date is $17,154.60 to include payment of FICA taxes and 401a retirement plan contributions. This covers the current five administrative employees, the interim CEO, human resources officer, accountant, financial aid officer, and administrative officer.
For contractual purposes, NMTI incurred a total of $1,392.72 in expenses for professional services and advertising, while $216.54 was spent on operations supplies.
As for its federal account expenses, $47,718.32 was spent on salaries and wages of personnel.
Of the remaining CW funds, $24,133.13 was used for salaries and wages, covering eight instructors, three student services, one informational technology, and three maintenance for facility employees.
A separate $23,585.19 was used for salaries and wages from the CI funds for the same employees receiving funding through the CW funds.
NMTI has incurred $1,931.36 in communication expenses for contractual purposes, as well as $7,966.32 in payments for student books, fuel and lubricants, office supplies, and operation supplies.
Board and other compensation expenses in the amount of $240 were spent from the local account.
“I really want guidance. I don’t want to just spend the $220,000 without being accountable for whatever, so we’re going to have to reimburse that and maintain that amount,” Attao said.
As for the CW funding, the interim CEO said that NMTI did receive its disbursement letter from the Department of Labor.
“They are awarding us $780,000, I believe, for Fiscal Year 2021. It wasn’t $1 million because I submitted an expenditure report that stated that the entire first quarter was really a bust…. The school wasn’t open. Nothing was operational,” Attao reported to the board.
She added, “We’re going to have that money available to us in the next couple of weeks. The reason for the delay is the central government transitioned to a new system and they’re having a hard time with [operations], I guess. I’m not sure, but there’s going to be a delay for a couple of weeks.”
The Northern Marianas Technical Institute board of trustees meet with interim chief executive officer Jodina Attao on Thursday in Lower Base.
