TO minimize travel costs, the Board of Education will promote the use of video teleconferencing technology during meetings.
“It will save us lots of money if we do this often. People need not come here on Saipan to participate in our meetings. They can just communicate with us through this medium,” BOE Chairman Herman T. Guerrero said.
The Public School System provides an $85 per diem for inter-island travels and a fixed $112 rate for off-island trips.
In previous years, PSS spent thousands of dollars in travel advances, but most of them have not been settled by the travelers.
During last week’s board meeting, Guerrero discussed video teleconferencing with PSS administrators.
“This will be a new practice for all BOE and PSS meetings,” he said.
But BOE also wants to know how it could “safely” use the medium during executive meetings.
“They’re thinking of ways how to keep it private or controlled during executive session. They’ll have to come up with the necessary security measures,” BOE spokesman Robert Myers said.
From March 1999 to July 2001, PSS records showed that it spent close to $100,000 in travel advances.
Four BOE members used over $66,000 in accumulated travel advances and about $100,000 was spent by 13 school principals.
The figures excluded the airfare of each traveler.
New travel guidelines require that all PSS personnel must settle their account in 15 days.
Failure to do so would compel the PSS fiscal office to require the traveler to pay all his previous unsettled accounts.
Recent amendments to the guidelines set a fixed per diem rate for travelers.
The new policy also aims to make PSS travel accounting “less complicated” by limiting it to certain items such as the plane ticket, the conference authorization or receipt and the trip report.
A traveler would no longer be asked to surrender car rental or food receipts.
The new policy also provides that PSS would withhold 10 percent of the traveler’s per diem. It would only be given to the person upon settlement of each trip.
