Seven employees of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation in CNMI have been arrested for allegedly favouring relatives and friends and taking cash bribes in exchange for not disconnecting customers who were late on the accounts.
The Saipan Tribune reports the seven, one of whom is a supervisor, allegedly caused losses to the utilities corporation of 300,000 US dollars.
The newspaper says many of the charges centre on orders by the supervisor and a senior worker to not disconnect utility services to friends and family members who were delinquent in payments.
A business executive whose company owes the Corporation 200,000 US dollars says he paid one of the workers cash every month for two years to keep being connected.
