Travel Restrictions Turn Into Big Budget Savings for NCUA
Due to the pandemic, only a fraction of the NCUA's multi-million dollar travel budget has been touched.
A mid-session review of the NCUA’s 2020 budget showed the coronavirus had a significant impact on expenses – especially travel.
During Thursday’s NCUA Board meeting, Chief Financial Officer Eugene Schied presented board members with an update on the overall Operating Budget performance, the Share Insurance Fund and an outlook for the agency’s Capital Budget for the remainder of 2020.
In a review of the budget supplied to board members, there are some noteworthy savings in the NCUA’s Operating Budget due to the pandemic. The NCUA had approved $27.3 million for travel expenses for 2020. According to the latest numbers, the agency had spent $6.4 million of that amount through May.
According to Schied’s updated budget, the agency expects to end the year with a nearly 50% savings in the travel budget even if normal travel schedules resumes later this year.
Board Member Todd Harper appeared more cautious to seeing an increase in any travel. “And in fact with COVID-19 and the expected increase this fall, I think we will end up spending considerably less on airplanes, trains, automobiles and hotels.”
Schied’s updated numbers showed an expectation of overall non-personnel spending to be 14% lower than the initial published budget of $84.5 million. According to the report, other expense categories, such as remote communications and supply reimbursements, are projected to be slightly higher due to the “result of the shift to off-site work resulting from COVID-19.”
The NCUA’s updated Share Insurance Fund budget showed a modest expected savings of 14.2% overall by the end of the year, also mainly due to the travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus and the fact that state examiner travel has all but stopped. Total travel savings is expected to be 60% by the end of 2020.
The 2020 Capital Budget of $25.1 million for capital projects showed no changes as “project spending estimates and project timelines generally remain consistent” for the remainder of the year.
Discussions about reallocating the savings and revising the budget will “be part of the conversation for 2021 when we talk about the budget in the operating schedule,” said Harper.