The United States' Department of the Interior says it had no involvement in any decision regarding possible personnel changes at the Northern Marianas Commonwealth Utilities Corporation.
The Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Papaliitele David Cohen, was responding to enquiries about reports from Saipan that Utu Abe Malae is being hired on a department grant to head the corporation.
Mr Cohen said he'd indicated to the Saipan government that the Office of Insular Affairs would be willing, in principle, to provide a grant to assist local authorities to procure outside expertise for utilities management.
He added, such a grant hadn't yet been approved and would have to go through the department's review and approval process before it could be issued.
