Lawmakers to drop bill backing Marubeni-Sithe

Lawmakers will scrap a proposed measure seeking support for Marubeni-Sithe’s bid on the Saipan power project after independent experts ranked higher competing companies in a latest report that countered earlier findings by the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation.

Rep. David M. Apatang, chair of the House Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications Committee, said that by dropping the legislation, it is now up to the CUC Board to choose a contractor to build the 80-megawatt plant.

“We will scrap it and let the board decide on the issue,” he told reporters.

The bill, pending with the committee since CUC chose Japan’s Marubeni Corp. and its U.S. partner Sithe Energies, Inc. for the $120 million project, seeks to provide the government’s full faith and credit backing to its offer despite ongoing protests.

It was proposed early this year while a private engineering firm hired by CUC was conducting independent re-evaluation of the proposals submitted by all 13 companies.

The legislative intervention immediately drew opposition from competing firms and from some government agencies, including the Office of Public Auditor, which called on Legislature to await findings by Burns & McDonnell.

On Wednesday, the Kansas City-based company made public its report in which gave highest scores to Enron and the Tomen consortium, ahead of Marubeni-Sithe, based on four criteria.

According to Apatang, the committee is expected to review the results to focus on three key issues that top bidders need to address before the government-owned utility corporation selects one contractor to undertake the project.

The representative declined to provide specific details, although he said these issues will be part of the final package that CUC will work out with its choice of contractor toward reaching an agreement.

Board directors will have to sit down with the leading proposers to iron out all of these concerns during the 90-day extension allowed for further review, he said.

Apatang, however, defended utility officials when asked if the independent report validated the protests questioning CUC’s procurement regulations, noting that they asked for the “best and final offers” from each finalist and negotiated a final agreement.

He pointed out that CUC will also have to decide whether to scale back the original plan. “The board will have to come up with a decision whether it is beneficial for the people to pursue this project.”

Apatang was among dozens of government officials, legislators and representatives of the firms who attended Wednesday’s meeting, the first in two months.

Designed to meet anticipated power demand on Saipan by the new millennium, the power plant has come under a storm of protests over the last two years.