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‘Finance, CUC close to settling dispute’
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Posted on Nov 30 2005
Commonwealth Utilities Corp. chairman Francisco Q. Guerrero has announced yet again that CUC and the Department of Finance would soon reach a settlement agreement to end their long-standing dispute over the government’s allegedly unpaid utility bills.
Quoting information from the Finance Department, Guerrero said the Executive Branch has infused a total of $18 million to CUC since the governor’s May 19 state of emergency declaration.
Using his emergency powers, Gov. Juan N. Babauta has reprogrammed millions of dollars to subsidize CUC’s fuel payments and finance the repair of the generators at the power plants.
He said CUC was only waiting for the government to provide detailed information on where the funds went. As soon as this is done, CUC and the government will sign the agreement.
“It could happen as early as this week, immediately after the governor turns CUC back to the control of the board,” Guerrero said.
The Finance Department sued CUC in April 2004 to prevent the disconnection of utility services to various government agencies due to non-payment of bills.
The Superior Court granted Finance a temporary restraining order, which has been renewed several times.
According to CUC, the government owes CUC an estimated total of $18 million to $20 million. Finance maintained, however, that CUC had overcharged the CNMI government almost double this amount for water and sewer services for the past 10 years.
Finance Secretary Fermin Atalig said CUC’s flawed rate structure has resulted in overcharges to the government that averages $3.39 million per fiscal year. He based this figure on a comparison between water and sewer bills charged to a commercial customer and the charges levied on the CNMI government for the same level of consumption of water and sewer services.
