“Reduced cash flow means our government is not able to pay our student scholarship recipients on time. Students are forced to go without the funds they need to pay tuition and rent on time, meaning late fees or in some cases, inability to finish classes or graduate on time,” Hofschneider said in a letter to MPLT.
In an interview, the senator said they are “trying to accomplish…a mechanism to allow eligible students to have an option of getting their grant up front.”
He added, “It is unfortunate that it has come to this point, but by having this option, the students can get their grant, a little less than usual because of service fee, but they can also elect not to avail of this process and wait for the next check run.”
Under his proposal, “MPLT will receive assurance from the Department of Finance and the Scholarship Office…that monies have been allotted, recipients are qualified and eligible and that MPLT will be guaranteed repayment prior to disbursement of scholarship funds to recipients.”
He is hoping that MPLT, Finance “and whichever banking institution agrees to partner up can arrive at a decision real soon.”
On Tuesday, MPLT held a closed-door meeting with Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson and CNMI Scholarship Office Chairwoman Carolyn Hosano to discuss funding sources for scholarships.
Hofschneider said he anticipates further financial challenges that may affect the timely release of checks for fall 2011 and beyond.
MPLT is an autonomous government agency that manages the funds collected by the government from public land leases.
The government and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. earlier “borrowed” a total of $7.5 million from MPLT.
