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PERSONNEL ARE ONE SOLUTION, ANOTHER PROBLEM

Aug. 1, 2001 – Although the proposed Fiscal Year 2002 budget appropriation for his office is less than he got this year, V.I. Inspector General Stephen Van Beverhoudt told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday that he considers the proposed funding sufficient to meet his agency's needs.
The proposed budget for the office is $981,750, down $6,643 from this year. Van Beverhoudt said the request is in keeping with a five-year reorganization/expansion plan prepared in 2000 with the ultimate goal of a $2 million budget for 2005.
Because of the deletion of an unclassified position and the creation of a classified special investigative position, $54,000 should be transferred from the unclassified to the classified personnel category, Van Beverhoudt said at the hearing on St. Croix.
"When all positions are filled, there will be a staff of 17 employees, the most since the early 1990s, which will include an investigative unit working specifically on cases developed by the V.I. Inspector General's Office," he said.
He emphasized that his top priority is to fill the positions of prosecuting attorney and fraud hotline operator. "An aggressive audit follow-up program is contingent on the filling of the vacancies," he said. "Once the positions are filled, the program can resume with vigor."
Van Beverhoudt said his office is currently conducting audits of the of the 2000 bond issue proceeds and federal funds, the hotel occupancy tax, certain areas in the operations of both the Water and Power Authority and the V.I. Lottery, and the operations of the Economic Development Commission program. Also, he said, without giving details, several investigations are under way or will be initiated in the near future.
He said his office is requesting that a section of the V.I. Code relating to peace officers be amended to include investigators employed by the Office of the Inspector General.
The Finance Committee meeting, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., didn't get under way until after 1 p.m. because of flight problems for some witnesses coming from St. Thomas. The committee also heard budget testimony from representatives of the Board of Education.
The proposed budget for the Board of Education is $1.27 million, also a reduction from this year's funding. The board chair, Jorge 'Tito" Galiber, said the board will strive to operate within the reduced amount, but he said it is requesting that, as more funds become available, all additional appropriations be made to the territorial scholarship fund "to enable V.I. students to obtain a higher level of assistance to fulfill their educational pursuits."
In the meantime, the senators appeared alarmed to hear that about half of the territory's public school teachers, mainly at the secondary level, may not hold required certification. The board executive director, Evadney Hodge, cited two possible reasons for this: One is that some teachers may not have taken requisite college-level education courses. The other is a law passed in 1992 requiring all teachers to complete a college course in Virgin Islands history.
"The board is trying to work with the Department of Education and the teachers to bridge that gap and, in the interim, to make sure we have our classrooms staffed with qualified teachers." Hodge said. She said that secondary-level teachers have been hired who have degrees in such subjects as math, English, social studies and science but who have not taken any teaching courses.
Because the need for teachers "was so severe in the Virgin Islands, those persons were hired," Hodge said. "And they were not informed that they had to have these courses in order to be certified; so, it persisted year in year out."
What the board is trying to do now is give the teachers "a time-certain to take these courses," she said. "That's a big fight with the department, and we are working on that, and we probably will win that fight this year."

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