CGA Goes to system that got KP in trouble -- What's up with that?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Merchant Marine Academy - Kings Point
1

<p>Very ironic. The Coast Guard Academy will now adopt a NAFI system like the one used at KP for 25 years. The same one that MARAD is telling KP is not legal!!!!! (note that coaches will now be "NAFI employees" at USCGA.)</p>

<p>The New London Day
Wednesday, April 1, 2009</p>

<p>Coast Guard Puts Stricter Oversight On
Beleaguered CGA Athletic Fund</p>

<p>Burhoe: Program will be run 'more like a business'</p>

<p>By Jennifer Grogan</p>

<p>New London - A Coast Guard Academy fund that is under investigation by Connecticut's U.S. attorney will now have more oversight and have to follow stricter rules, the academy superintendent said Tuesday.</p>

<p>Coast Guard Headquarters made the change to the Coast Guard Academy Athletic Association on March 24 - 10 days after the association's director committed suicide, several months after the federal investigation into the association's activities began, and 21 months after Superintendent Rear Adm. J. Scott Burhoe asked his superiors to make the association into a "Nonappropriated Fund Instrumentality."</p>

<p>"It did not have as many controls as it should have had,"
Cmdr. Mike Lopez, academy comptroller, said Tuesday.
"Now it will have those controls, additional oversight and a much more formalized personnel structure."</p>

<p>The association's director, Alex Simonka, had handled the day-to-day operations since the mid-1990s, and the association's president, Athletic Director Ray Cieplik, had supervised Simonka since 1999.</p>

<p>A board of senior academy staff members was supposed to provide additional oversight of the funds, which come mostly from cadets, the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association and the Coast Guard Foundation.</p>

<p>But Burhoe said a "tremendous amount of responsibility"
was placed on the director and president, and he could not recall the last time the association's Board of Control met.</p>

<p>Simonka, 51, of Gales Ferry, was also the business manager for the academy's athletics division and the women's basketball coach. He had been placed on administrative leave March 11, three days before he committed suicide on campus.</p>

<p>A spokesman for the U.S. attorney confirmed Tuesday that the investigation was ongoing, but he would not comment further on the details.</p>

<p>The athletic association was established about 50 years ago to support the intercollegiate athletic program at the academy by supplementing government funds with additional dollars to enhance the sports programs.</p>

<p>Last fiscal year, the association's revenues and expenses totaled $1.08 million. An independent certified public accountant has audited the association's funds annually for at least the past decade, Burhoe said.</p>

<p>The association will now be brought in line with the Coast Guard's manual for Nonappropriated Fund Instrumentalities, which manage monies within the federal government from sources other than Congress.
It will be known as the Coast Guard Academy Athletics Activity Fund.</p>

<p>The Coast Guard Headquarters office that oversees these instrumentalities will review the association's budget, more formal personnel management processes will be in place, and a standard operating procedures manual will be used, Lopez said.</p>

<p>"It will certainly run more like a business," Burhoe said.</p>

<p>Examining the process</p>

<p>Burhoe began asking questions in 2007 about how the athletic association operated, how the funds were managed and who provided oversight. Not satisfied with the answers, he asked the Coast Guard in a letter dated June 15, 2007, to bring the athletic association into full compliance with the manual for instrumentalities by November 2007.</p>

<p>"What I wanted to do was tighten up the process,"
Burhoe said, adding that he was concerned with "anything that doesn't look as though it corresponds with the proper ways of doing business."</p>

<p>The reasons it took so long to make the change, he said, was that certain administrative issues took a while to resolve, many other activities were taking place at the academy and the federal investigation had begun, which meant his superiors had to decide whether to wait until it was completed before taking any action.</p>

<p>"Regardless of how the investigation turned out, this is the direction I felt was important for us to move in,"
Burhoe said, "and my bosses supported me in that."</p>

<p>Every cadet is considered a member of the association and pays $300 annually in dues from their Coast Guard salaries, which Burhoe compared to an activity or sports fee at a civilian college.</p>

<p>The association itself cannot accept donations. The Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association and the Coast Guard Foundation are large benefactors, with both designating a portion of their annual or semi-annual contribution to the academy for athletics.</p>

<p>The alumni association gives the academy as a whole about
$1 million annually. The foundation's contribution varies, but this year it will be about $750,000, Burhoe said.</p>

<p>Burhoe can only accept gifts of $50,000 or less from these associations for the academy; Coast Guard Headquarters must approve larger gifts. Once accepted, the money is deposited in the Coast Guard Gift Fund, and the allotment for the athletic association is dispersed.</p>

<p>The athletic association uses that money to pay for coaches'
salaries, meals and lodging for the teams when they travel, equipment, awards, professional development and camp expenses for the youth camps run by the academy.</p>

<p>The academy would not be able to run its 23 intercollegiate sports without this support, Burhoe said, particularly the sailing and rowing programs.</p>

<p>(c) 1998-2009 The Day Publishing Co.</p>

<p>URL:
TheDay.com</a> - Coast Guard Puts Stricter Oversight On Beleaguered CGA Athletic Fund</p>

2

<p>What is up with that? How can they do it when KP just got put through the ringer for it?</p>

3

<p>Strange times indeed. Scratching my head over this one…</p>

4

<p>I would like to know how the current admin will manage with the same $61 mill when the prior admin had problems and moved money between lines to make ends meet?</p>

5

<p>All NAFIs are NOT alike.</p>

<p>In order to establish and operate a Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentality (NAFI), an executive agency must have legal authority granted by the US Congress to do so. NAFIs have a long tradition in the US DoD for Welfare, Morale, and Recreational activities. The US DoT does NOT have the same legal authority.</p>

<p>It doesn’t matter what the “other guy” is doing, if s/he has the legal authority granted from Congress and you do not.</p>

<p>Further, the Academy encountered difficulties with its NAFI organizations, because too many of them were paying non-appropriated staff with appropriated funds. The essence of a NAFI is that payments are made with non-appropriated funds.</p>

6

<p>Thank you for explaining this KPintheknow! It sure answered a lot of my questions.</p>

7

<p>Quote"Further, the Academy encountered difficulties with its NAFI organizations, because too many of them were paying non-appropriated staff with appropriated funds. The essence of a NAFI is that payments are made with non-appropriated funds."</p>

<p>Now how will these people get paid if they had been paid with appropriated funds when they should not have been? Did this involve the coaches and is that why some of them left? Has there been a shift between non-appropriated funds and appropriated funds?</p>

8

<p>Well, then someone at DOT needs to go to Congress and get the law changes so KP can be treated like all the other Academies. We need to write our Congresscritters as well.</p>

9

<p>The US Congress and the President’s Office of Management and Budget “encouraged” the Academy to convert as many NAFI positions (illegally) paid with appropriated funds to true government positions paid (legally) with appropriated funds as quickly as they could. That has been accomplished. Was it pretty? No. Did some people get hurt in the transition? Yes. </p>

<p>Many questions and issues still remain at the Waterfront and Athletics. Resolving these issues will take some additional time.</p>

10

<p>One Senate Subcommittee staffer with a hard-on for the Academy drove this --blew it out of proportion and MARAD and DOT over reacted. MARAD runs an investigation to cover its butt instead of doing what it should have done and reported it to the DOT Inspector General, but the IG would have pointed the finger back at MARAD for approving everything the Academy did and that would have made Sean Connaughton look bad for whatever and whenever he wanted to run for something again – and he wasn’t about to let that happen – and it get painted as the US Congress drove this. As a matter of fact, the Board of Visitors wasn’t even brought in on it until after the fact. One Congressman resigned from the BOV because he was so upset with the Mickey Mouse way MARAD handled the Congressional notifircation and inclusion of the BOV.</p>

<p>Admiral Worley is working really hard to do the right things but until there is some adult leadership at MARAD who cares about the Academy and not their own agenda, he’s going to have to work harder than he needs to.</p>

<p>Godspeed.</p>

11

<p>Is there anything that we, as parents, can do?</p>

12

<p>It’s laudable that everyone wants to help. It’s also important folks understand how things work in Congress.</p>

<p>One easy way to better understand Congress is to realize that all Representatives and Senators are, within their respective houses, either Authorizers or Appropriators. Authorizers are important, but do not control the purse. Appropriators control funding. So, you can upset an Authorizer–not a good thing to do. But you should never upset an Appropriator.</p>

<p>Next, the federal budget is too complex for Appropriators to remember, or control, everything. No matter how big the Academy is to the Kings Point family, the budget for Kings Point does not qualify as even a round-off error for the federal budget or the DoT budget. In those matters, congressional staffers and OMB analysts play a very, very large role. So we need to be careful when describing an outcome to a particular congressional staffer. True, s/he may seem to be a small cog in a big machine, but any engineer can tell you how a big machine crashes, when a small cog refuses to work or go along.</p>

<p>Finally, after turning the Kings Point world upside down to eliminate NAFI organizations and staff who perform direct government services (as opposed to welfare, morale, and recreation–the typical role for a NAFI), it is unlikely to expect a return of the NAFI organization and staff to their former role(s) at the Academy.</p>

<p>The old saying that “an ounce of the prevention beats a pound of the cure” was never so true as it applies to the old NAFI organizations and staff. Kings Point didn’t seek that ounce of prevention, but it certainly did get a pound of the cure. Now that we’ve taken the cure, we need to work through the entire get well process. Trying to undo all that has been done just isn’t going to happen.</p>

13

<p>:) No trying to undo the “cure.” Just wondered if there was anything that the parents as a group could do to help work through the cure?</p>

14

<p>Yes, I agree with Suzanne, we as parents come from all 50 states. We would be glad to help we just do not want to make things worse. While we are willing to help we also realize many of us are not in the know. We need to understand what is needed, how it needs to be delivered and to whom.</p>

<p>I will also say as American citizens we also realized the importance of the maritime industry and we want to make sure our President, Congressmen and Representatives are aware of the importance as well. The events of this past week have brought national attention to the maritime industry, I would think this is a great opportunity to voice our concerns and support for the industry. Again we would benefit from some directions to do it correctly.</p>