REPRESENTATIVE Stanley T. Torres, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, has come out with a three-page performance evaluation of Rita H. Inos as commissioner of education, detailing why she should not continue holding her post.
“Dr… Inos may be qualified as commissioner of education by possessing a doctorate degree in education. However, she has not proven her capabilities by fulfilling her responsibilities,” the lawmaker claimed in the evaluation he presented to the House of Representatives during Thursday’s session.
Torres, R-Saipan, alleged that Inos “totally neglected her fiduciary duties and responsibilities” as head of the Public School System when she left three deputy commissioner positions in an acting capacity for “over three long years.”
The three PSS officials who have remained in acting capacities “have proven to be very capable and made Commissioner Inos looked very competent,” Torres.
These officials are Louise S. Concepcion, Rita A. Sablan and William Matson.
Concepcion, as procurement and supply officer, has held the acting commissioner for administration position since Dec. 5, 1998. Torres said: “Whether Concepcion is qualified for the job or not, she held it for three years and four months with high marks and even was acting commissioner when…. Inos took leave with pay for six months trying out politics.
Sablan has been acting deputy commissioner for curriculum, instruction and assessment services since Dec. 5, 1998.
Despite her numerous tasks, Torres said Sablan “obviously has been holding Dr. Inos’s fort in her four years of contractual employment and naturally (she) is more than qualified to be appointed deputy commissioner permanently.”
Matson, the federal program officer, has been acting deputy commissioner for finance since Feb. 14, 1998.
Torres also alleged that Inos had “additional dereliction of her duties” when she objected to take direct responsibility for the special education program.
“Special education is a wholly federally funded program which she didn’t want to supervise. But that does not restrict her from manipulating the funds for other unnecessary activities not related to the special education program, such as travels to conferences and workshops in disguise to visit relatives and job hunting friends,” Torres said.
The lawmaker also urged the Board of Education to take a “serious look” at Hopwood Junior High’s special education program for the severely disabled. He said the program had been neglected since Nov. 2001 or “after…Inos returned from politics.”
He added, “These students keep being sent to Hopwood only to be baby-sit by teacher-aides and a hospital bed attendant nurse who has no experience of such program.”
