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CUC spends $9.5M a month, says Muna
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Posted on Jun 15 2008
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. needs to implement 100 percent cost recovery for utilities because CUC has been spending $9.5 million monthly, according to CUC executive director Antonio Muna.
On top of that, CUC has also been paying obligations to some contractors, he added.
Muna said they are paying $8 million a month just for fuel alone and another $1.5 million for monthly operating expenses.
Right now, based on their estimated actual projections, Muna said that CUC is looking at $8 million a month based on the current fuel price.
“The last fuel price we had was about $4.21 per gallon. So based on that particular price per gallon and if that continues going forward we are up to $ 8 million a month for fuel alone,” he stressed.
Every three weeks CUC spend $3.5 million for diesel only.
He said the fuel includes the supply for Power Plant 4 in Puerto Rico, Saipan, and for Tinian and Rota.
Muna added that in certain months such as in May, they had two fuel orders—on May 3 and May 31—that incurred them about $10 million.
He said the last six months ending on March 31, CUC’s total operating expenses was $52,554,973.
“So if you look at $52.5 million divided by six months, that’s about $8 million per month…and that doesn’t include some of our obligations for our contracts,” Muna said.
He earlier stated that, except for the Fitial administration, no other administration had the courage to actually implement 100 percent cost recovery for utilities.
Referring to the newly increased monthly electric rates, he said the Fitial administration is focused on fully resolving CUC’s problems and was the first to go with full cost recovery.
