Muña: PSS, govt still owe CUC money

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is stepping up the pressure on the central government and the Public School System to pay the more than $3 million CUC believes is owed it.

According to CUC’s records, the central government owes the utility company $1.6 million in past debts while PSS owes $1.8 million, CUC executive director Antonio Muña said yesterday.

“With central government and PSS, they really need to come to terms with reality,” he said.

Muña earlier said that CUC was counting on the $3.4 million to help pay for the $6 million Aggreko generators, including $504,000 that is due in a few weeks.

PSS Education Commissioner Rita Sablan said that, according to their records, they do not owe money to CUC.

She earlier said school administrators have indicated there are discrepancies between what CUC’s meter readers are calculating and what school meter readers are calculating.

PSS paid an average of $400,000 each month during fiscal year 2007 and paid $4 million to CUC for the entire fiscal 2007 year, she said.

“To our records, we don’t owe anything,” Sablan said.

Muña said yesterday he has asked one of his accounting officials to contact PSS to set up a meeting to reconcile the payments.

In July, PSS reallocated $1.6 million to CUC after Finance Secretary Eloy Inos became involved in the situation.

PSS’ director of Finance would not release their payment records, but an Open Government Act request was submitted. An OGA request was also made for CUC’s records.

Muña has been in communication with Inos regarding the government’s outstanding debt, he said, adding that although the government provides important resources to the public, they are not immune to paying for their power.

“We know they provide services, but at some point they need to come to reality,” he added.

For every dollar that CUC is owed and not paid, that’s one dollar lost to the utility company, Muña said.

“If we have a large sector [not paying], that will really put some stress on us financially,” he said.

Last week, Muña said he was hoping to receive the $3.4 million by the end of September, but yesterday he said he was now aiming to receive the money by the first week of October, in time to meet the Aggreko payment deadline.

Meanwhile, Jack Brown, an engineer from Guam’s U.S. Naval Base, toured CUC’s power plants yesterday, looking at the engines and control room.

“It will probably be some time before he makes any kind of assessment,” Muña said, adding that Brown may make another visit. “[Yesterday] is just basically orientation, just a quick overview.”