College of The Bahamas (COB) President Rodney Smith has announced the reorganization of the institution's entire financial and administrative structure, beginning with the hiring of a new "financial administrative consultant" and a $2.1 million institution-wide technology upgrade.
The institution has hired Dr. Paul Bylaska, who most recently served as vice president of finance and administration at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. At COB, Bylaska will serve as the in-house consultant in the Business Office and will assist with the organizational restructuring, implementation of standard procedures for all areas, staff training and development, as well as the implementation of a new data management system.
"We've also hired a business and finance consultant -- someone who is a former CFO (chief financial officer) at four universities in the U.S.," said Smith. "He has come on board and he's been talking with our staff members. He's in the process of helping us to ensure that all of our procedures are in place, our technology is in place and talking to each other in terms of financial administration.
"He's also helping us to make sure we have standard operating procedures throughout the financial administration section. So by the time we finish pulling together everything, we will not only be able to produce monthly financial reports, but also have all of our audits done on a timely basis, submitted not only to the council but also to the government," he said.
Regarding data management, the COB president disclosed that the institution is going in a new direction.
"We're going to be implementing the Banner system, which is used on university campuses throughout the world, to better organize our data management system... Banner is institution-wide. Banner will be able to help us with all of our records and data management for human resources, student affairs, academic administration, registrars office -- once data goes into the system, everyone is able to see the information and is able to talk with each other on a regular basis.
"Not only that, but because of the modules, we'll also be able to do degree auditing and keep all of our curriculums as well as core substitutions updated. What that does is allows better management of the entire substitution across the board," the president said. He explained that implementation of the Banner system takes 12 to 18 months due mostly to extensive training. That process, he said, will begin in the spring of 2016.
Noting that the hardware had to go in first, Smith said the institution was on the verge of a $2.1 million technology upgrade.
"We're expanding our bandwidth and we're also making wireless accessible throughout the entire campus, and all of our campuses as a matter of fact," he added.
The institution's financial management came into question recently when a leaked copy of a 2011 draft audit suggested serious flaws in the business and financial administration. The institution has addressed those allegations, and the underlaying flaws, Smith said, and insisted that the institution will soon be ready to draw on the millions in Caribbean Development Bank funds set aside for it. Smith noted that a requirement for drawing down CDB funds is completion of audits.
"We expect to complete those required audits by CDB by January 2016. We're moving very quickly and working very well with the accounting firm and things are progressing well."
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