CNMI Utility says govt responsible for losses

Transcript

The utility provider in the Northern Marianas has released its quarterly report suggesting it is hamstrung by the local government.

The report says if this doesn't change, CUC may collapse or run out of money.

Our correspondent Mark Rabago told Koro Vaka'uta about the report.

MARK RABAGO:  It just verifies what they already know. That the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation is really in a big muck right now.  The primary culprit for this problem is the government isn't paying its utilities.  The CUC in its report to the Environmental Protection Agency said that the government owes the utility some 30 million dollars and this is a big chunk of its operating expenses.  Aside from that, it basically said that some bills passed by the legislature that eventually became law has cut its revenue by 5.7 million dollars which is another 12% of its operating budget.  Then the regulatory agency, the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation Regulatory Body also didn't allow some measures that it wanted, that the utility wanted passed through, which has resulted in another 350,000 lost by the Utilities Corporation.  So they are really in a bad situation right now.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  What were some of the initiatives or some of the measures that the CUC wanted to put through that, as you mentioned, wasn't allowed to?

MR:  Well, for one, I think they wanted some surcharge to be in effect.  They said that they lost 350,000 in revenue when the 2.1% PINC surcharge expired last April and it wasn't renewed by the Public Utilities Corporation which oversees its operations.  Aside from that there's been some bills that were based basically that limits what CUC can collect from the public school system which owes it money too and so far it is unsuccessful in collecting the debt from the local hospital which is the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation which has contributed to this problem.

KV:  And I understand there's even pending moves involving the street lights for example that could lead to more losses.

MR:  Yeah, that's another 2 million that might fly out of their coffers because right now DPW is in charge of paying for street lights but under a new bill they might be forced to pay another 2 million, another 2 million from their operating budget.

KV:  So there doesn't seem to be too much sympathy from the government in terms of the situation.

MR:  Yes and CUC has threatened that we might come back to the days of rolling blackouts which were very pronounced about four or five years ago.  So hopefully the government will give it some assistance, some of these measures will be approved and some of the measures that are detrimental to CUC will not be approved.

KV:  Is there any hope?  Is there some optimism?  Any light at the end of the tunnel?

MR:  If you ask public opinion I know people don't like the CUC right now because the CNMI pays one of the highest utility rates in the Pacific and they think that some of the employees are paid a lot of money and some of the consultants are paid a lot of money so there is not a lot of sympathy.