NMI govt settles $1.9M-plus CUC accounts

Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson said the central government finally settling all of its utility accounts is the result of years of painstaking work and direct collaboration with officials of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres announced in his State of the Commonwealth Address last Friday that the government has brought its CUC accounts current.

“I am pleased to share that for the first time in decades, your central government settled is arrears with CUC, bringing all central government accounts current.”

“Eliminating over $1.9 million in arrears will enable CUC to reinvest these revenues toward critical water infrastructure to meet our goal of providing 24-hour water service to our people.”

Larson told Saipan Tribune that it has been the central government’s goal to become current when it comes to its CUC bills. “For the first time in decades, the CNMI government had settled its debts to CUC. Yes. We’ve been working on this goal for a long time.”

“We worked with CUC in reconciling each and every account of the government—water, power, and sewer. It was more than just not paying. And that’s for all three islands—Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.”

Larson added that they combed through every record on their accounts. “It took us years. We had to assess what accounts were active government accounts. Then we had to go account by account, confirming if payment had been made or if it was due.”

She said that they had also began converting some government offices to prepaid meters. “We have converted many of our government offices to a single-phase prepaid meter. And once the meter comes in for our bigger offices they will convert to it as well.”

“It was a lot of work and collaboration with CUC and now, with prepaid meters on many of our government buildings, a lot of the problems from the past will be prevented from escalating to that point [huge debts] ever again. There’s so many good things happening. Just got to keep the momentum going and finish the plan to getting us to full recovery.”

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., an autonomous government agency, will soon be using solar energy in April next year.

CHCC chief executive officer Esther L. Muña said it would lessen their electricity costs by as much as $700,000 in the first five years. She said CHCC spends about $300,000 a month on power consumption.