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CPA, contractor deal theirs alone: CUC
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Posted on Mar 19 1999
The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation will not assist the Commonwealth Ports Authority in settling the claims of a contractor on the long-delayed sewer line system despite forging an earlier agreement to complete the project.
CUC Executive Director Timothy P. Villagomez said the government-owned utility firm would stick with the initial deal and not intervene on the problems with contractor Pacific Drilling Ltd.
“We are outside of that. We have nothing to do with the stop order and that’s between them and the contractor,” he said.
Villagomez previously had raised the issue with CUC board directors, but it was decided that they would not raise their share of the project’s costs above what they signed with the ports authority.
Under a memorandum of agreement reached late last year, the utility firm will shoulder 70.6 percent of the project cost amounting to $3.5 million while the remaining 30 percent will be charged to the operating and capital improvement project costs of Saipan International Airport.
The sewer line project, which will run from the airport to the Agingan Waste Water Treatment Plant benefiting some 1,000 households, has been suspended since May 1998 due to lack of funds.
The cash-strapped ports authority had been trying to resume work by seeking the assistance of CUC in providing additional funds.
Earlier this year, the project contractor has demanded some $1.9 million from CPA for additional costs incurred to the company due to the work stoppage.
So far, CPA Executive Director has agreed to pay $352,784, suggesting that the escalation and remobilization costs can be covered under a change order when the project resumes construction.
Both government agencies are under pressure to complete the sewer line because further delay may result to increasing bacterial contamination in ground water that will affect the safety and health of residents in the area.
