WASHINGTON—While NCUA recently reported that costs for its recent national training program came in under budget and below the price tag for the same event in 2014, one analyst asserts that costs per employee attending actually went up.
In a released statement, NCUA last month pointed out that its “Making a Difference” training program, held between April 4 and April 15 in Denver, came in $404,121 below its board-approved budget, a savings of more than 18%. “The 2016 training event cost $128,268 less than the 2014 National Training Conference,” the agency said.
But Keith Leggett, the former senior vice president and senior economist at the ABA, stated on his Credit Union Watch blog: “However, fewer employees attended the 2016 training conference than 2014. NCUA reported 1,242 employees attended the 2014 conference. In comparison, 954 employees attended the 2016 event. Attendance was down almost 23% between the 2014 and 2016 events. This means the actual cost per employee was $1,539 for the 2014 event versus $1,869 for the 2016 event. In other words, cost per employee went up over 21% between the 2014 and 2016 event."
If the cost per employee came in at the 2014 level, the cost of the 2016 event would have been $1,468,206 instead of the actual cost of $1,782,999, Leggett noted.