ALEXANDRIA, Va.–While Board Member Mark McWatters, as expected, cast the dissenting vote in the 2-1 NCUA budget vote, he did acknowledge that progress has been made on some of the budget-transparency issues he identified as issues in remarks made at the November 2014 board meeting, when he also voted against the 2015 budget and read a long statement sharply critical of NCUA’s budget process.
For her part, NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz said that NCUA has now completed nearly all of the 11 requests that McWatters made in those November 2014 comments.
McWatters said that he remains “dismayed” at both the increases in the NCUA budget (year-over-year) and what he dubbed the “historic climb” in the overhead transfer rate. He said he continues to “strongly encourage” NCUA to enhance the budget transparency process, and urged the board to hold a formal budget hearing later this year with presentations by both NCUA staff and input from the public prior to presenting and voting on the 2016 budget.
“This approach, while somewhat cumbersome, will materially enhance the transparency and inclusiveness of the process,” McWatters said, indicating that he will continue to vote against agency budgets until those things occur.
After a number of recent high-profile disagreements with Matz, McWatters added that he fully appreciates that “reasonable minds may differ on these issues. To the extent the chair and vice chair have a different perspectives, I welcome their views. My differences with the chair and vice chair are purely professional.”
Following McWatters’ remarks Matz cited comments made by McWatters at the November 2014 board meeting related to budget transparency in which he outlined 11 items he would like to see. Matz said eight of those items have been completed, two are in process, and one is likely not workable.
“I was not aware of those and would like to be briefed on those,” answered McWatters. “I very much appreciate it, and I think the credit union community very much appreciates it. Does it mean everything is perfect? I don’t think so. But this is a pretty dramatic improvement in transparency.”