Previous Story
PSS, CUC sit down to discuss $1.8M debt
|
Posted on Oct 02 2008
Officials from the Public School System are meeting with Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Antonio Muña today to discuss the school system’s more than $1 million in overdue debt.
PSS records obtained by the Saipan Tribune via the Open Government Act show the school system owes at least $1.2 million in past debt because PSS has failed to pay its utility bills since April.
Muña has repeatedly said PSS owes the utility company $1.8 million. The money, along with $1.6 million that the central government owes, is going to help pay for the $6 million emergency Aggreko generators. A payment of $504,000 is due to Aggreko in one week.
PSS acting finance director Lori Grizzard and Education Commissioner Rita Sablan repeatedly said the school district did not owe any money to CUC because school administrators found discrepancies between the school’s meter readings and CUC’s meter reading. PSS is questioning the billing of $300,000 on top of the $1.2 million that CUC has billed them.
Altogether, PSS paid CUC $2,473,551.91 for fiscal year 2008, not including the month of September. This amount includes $1.6 million that was reallocated from the system’s personnel and “all others” budget.
At yesterday’s Board of Education meeting, Sablan said she and other PSS officials are going to discuss the discrepancies with Muña this morning.
“We will go to CUC tomorrow and say ‘Tony, take it off,’” Sablan told members of the board.
“This is ridiculous. They’re dealing with kids. Why are they so mean?” BOE member Herman Guerrero said of CUC.
Board member Galvin DL Guerrero asked what would happen if Muña refuses to change the billing.
“Are we ready to go to court on this? I think we should be,” he said.
Other members of the board said it was premature to talk of lawsuits.
According to PSS records, the system owes a balance of:
– $42,433.81 for the month of April;
– $323,536.72 for the month of May;
– $370,885.18 for the month of June;
– $313,707.02 for the month of July; and
– $141,726.61 for the month of August.
