PHILIPSBURG - Government is clamping down on the blackout of financial and other information from the National Institute for Professional Advancement (NIPA) board and has stopped subsidies to the institute temporarily.

 

If the Board continues to fail to provide financial information requested by Government, as is stipulated in its subsidy ordinance, then the subsidy will be ceased.

 

Government also will be taking the NIPA board to court and will be instructing government accountant bureau SOAB to conduct a full investigation into NIPA’s financial administration, Education Minister Silveria Jacobs told reporters at the Council of Ministers press briefing on Wednesday.  

 

Alluding to the recent lien placed on NIPA’s dollar and guilder accounts by a former employee and NIPA losing yet another court case, Jacobs said there were too many “alarming developments” at the institution. She said her role as Minister was to ensure that quality education is assured at NIPA, that the rights and responsibilities of management and staff are clearly defined and that the institution lives up to its responsibilities in providing SBO education according to the subsidy it receives.

 

Government has requested NIPA’s audited financial statements on several occasions, to no avail. The statements were requested by former Education Minister Rita Bourne-Gumbs and again by Jacobs when she took office late last year.

 

Jacobs said that when the statements were requested NIPA had asked for an extension on November 24. Government granted the extension on December 4 and gave NIPA until December 18 to provide the information.

The board also was invited to a meeting scheduled for December 17, to discuss the “state of affairs” at the institution. The board requested a postponement of the meeting via the Institute’s executive director and the meeting was never convened.

 

In a letter dated January 27, NIPA a

gain was asked to provide its audited financial annual reports as is stipulated in article 16 of the subsidy ordinance. The institution was given two weeks from the date of that letter to provide the information. If the reports are not received by the deadline given, government’s Finance Department will stop the advance payments to NIPA until further notice. Jacobs said this would be done with the approval of the Council of Ministers.

 

“As a consequence of this non-compliance, the SOAB will be ordered to conduct a full audit of the financial administration” of NIPA and its board, Jacobs said.

 

The board will be informed of this decision and about the process and procedures related to the audit via the Department of Education.

 

Jacobs said she also had received a report on an extensive control conducted on NIPA by the Inspectorate of Education. The control was to determine the exact number of full-time students attending the institution, the exact number of teachers, whether the teachers had valid contracts and were correctly scaled, whether NIPA had a complete schedule, whether it had an administration schedule and minutes of report card progress meetings, amongst other things.

 

Jacobs said that while the findings of the control showed there had been “small improvements” at NIPA, the overall picture at the institution was not acceptable. “There are still too many things not going correctly at NIPA,” she said. The board was given a copy of the Inspectorate’s report and had until yesterday, Wednesday, to give its final comments on it. NIPA’s response had not been received up to mid-morning Wednesday.

 

Jacobs said it Government’s attorney had advised not to dismiss the board, as this was outside of the Minister’s responsibilities. However, Government is meeting with its lawyer and is “in our rights to take them to court.” She said Government was currently building a dossier to take NIPA to court.

 

Government also is investigating the matter of the lien recently placed on NIPA’s accounts, as well as reports of staff not being paid and other mismanagement of the board “that can be proven.” She said board members could be held personally liable for this.

 

She assured the public that the Ministry was not neglecting its responsibilities to ensure that quality education is provided at NIPA. “This is a very important for Government and we are doing all that we can in the means and within the law to bring this situation and turn it around,” she said.

 

Jacobs said too that the subsidy NIPA had received in 2015 had been based on a projected number of students that was far more than actually were enrolled at the institute. Hence NIPA received more subsidy “than they required to run the school and they were in no peril of not having enough funds to be able to take care of operations.”

 

The Daily Herald