College budgets a struggle

Press, 14 May 1982, Page 4

College budgets a struggle

Education reporter Teachers' colleges are stuggling with their budgets this Vear through not knowing their allocations. Although a-..third of the financial year has past, the Education Department has yet to tell the colleges how much money, they have to spend.' Teachers' colleges usually have their allocation in February' This year, however, cuts are expected because of last year’s halving of the trainee intake. College administrators are concerned about, the extent of the cuts. The chairman of the Christchurch Teachers' College Council's finance committee. Mr G. M. McNally, said last evening that the delay was causing problems. “It is like a householder trying to budget his monthly expenditure without knowing what his salary is,” he said. The Education Department has made separate allocations for the college departments, but departmental heads had no idea of the amount of allocations.

“They are having to work

in the dark.” Mr McNally said. “Some departments may find half way through the" year that they have .used up their allocation." " ! . College staff were angry and frustrated about the situation, he said. Mr MucNally criticised Education Department staff. “If they expect education institutions to manage their finances properly they have a responsibility to give them the information to do it.

“I cannot think of any other organisation that could budget properly without knowing how much money it could spend,” he said. The college has been sent funds to keep it running, but the department had not said what proportion of the final allocation these funds amounted to, he said.

“It is unsatisfactory.” Mr McNally said. “We do not know whether it is 50 per cent or 80 per cent of what we are getting.”., The ..College Council has written to the Director-Gen-eral of Education. Mr W. C. Renwick, complaining about the delay. The college registrar. Mr

A. R.. Donnithorne, said colleges throughout New Zealand were being affected by the delays. He had attended the annual conference "Of teachers’ college registrars last week where the problem had been “the centre of attention." The registrars were dissatisfied with reasons for the delay given by the departmental representative, he said. . The department's director of finance, Mrs B. Farrelly, said from Wellington that the delay was caused by the introduction of a new system of funding for teachers’ colleges. Instead of one national grant dividend among the colleges according to trainee numbers, each college now received grants based on its own budget,'she said. Difficulties in working out the new system had caused the delay, which Was unsatisfactory, Mrs Farrelly said. The department hoped to be able to inform the colleges about their allocations soon, she said.