College Bursar: Cafeteria & Road Town Bakery are drain on college
However, Dr. Dawson, when asked by Third District Representative Honourable Julian Fraser RA, about his major expenses out of the 11 million dollars given by Government, the president said “that would be salaries”.
The college Bursar Ms. Ursula Moore provided the SFC Members with a break down as follows: Salaries for full time Instructors - $2.1 million Salaries for part time instructors - $596,000Salaries to support staff - $5.3 million
Furthermore, besides the big tag for salaries, Ms. Moore told the Parliamentary Committee during her H. L. Stoutt College presentation that capital expenditures were; Furniture and Equipment $456,000, improvement to Capital assets, $122,000 and IT $348,000.
The President told the Members that he has about 165 full time staff. Of this there are 35 full time faculty members, they then typically hire another 50-60 staff part time on a semester basis. Mr. Dawson said 40-50 full-time staff are persons who work in the food and beverage operations, the others would be administrative support and grounds, facilities, maintenance officers, as well as administrative officers.
On the issue of free tuition enacted by the National Democratic Party government the last time in office (2003-2007) was also an issue. The Minister for Health and Social Development Ronnie W. Skelton stated that he was the Minister of Finance when the tuition was made free and the whole philosophy of making tuition free is totally different from what he is hearing now. “We sat down with the then board and then President and told them we want to make tuition free for any BVIslanders who wanted to come to HLSCC once they meet the eligibility. We asked what does it take to fund the college with this in mind, a number was given and all the other people who do not qualify will have to pay tuition to the college”, the former Finance Minister told the committee.
The Premier and Minister of Finance Dr. D. Orlando Smith asked the President what does it cost to run the college? To which Dr. Dawson replied $19 million. Dr. Smith asked if everyone was free how much would it cost to run the college to which the President replied it would be about $16 million. Dr. Dawson said “I mention 19 million because of how behind we are in respect to some capital aspects.”
When further pressed by the Minister for Finance Dr. Smith on what is the cost of running the college if everyone was free, BVIslandsers and none BVIslanders, the President’s response was 16 -17 million dollars.
Road Town Bakery and Cafeteria are the drain on college
Territorial Member Archibald C. Christian asked about other sources of revenue, such as the Cafeteria, Road Town Bakery, and Auditorium. The Bursar replied she did not have the detailed breakdown but the total income for 2011 was $2,368,019 which are from beverage sales, food sales, commission from vending machine and interest, rental of college facilities, textbooks, tickets sales and top up from the mobile companies.
Honourable Christian then asked what the projected profit was, and between the Cafeteria and the Road Town Bakery which one was the most drain, to which Ms. Moore replied both the Cafeteria and the Road Town Bakery are the drain. She said the Cafeteria’s projected 2012 revenue is $539,000 but expenses are projected to be $910,000. For the Road Town bakery, income is projected at $727,000 but expenses of 1.2 million dollars.
Honourable Christian asked what was the plans for those two organizations to which the Minister for Education and Culture Myron V. Walwyn told the HOA committee appointed to examine the 2012 draft Estimates that it will be worked out in-house and “it's good to have a Minister who has a background in food and beverage”.
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