PSS to look into each schools’ power consumption

The CNMI Public School System will be looking closely on each schools’ power consumption after its conservation efforts failed to drastically reduce its monthly utility bills, according to Public School System finance director Richard Waldo.

Waldo told the Board of Education during its meeting last week that PSS’ billings for October and November 2011 was $400,000—an amount significantly higher than what was expected and recorded in previous months.

“It shows that for October and November [billings], we still stay in $400,000. So we are investigating every single one [school] because if we stick to $400K, that would translate to $4.8 million for the entire fiscal year,” Waldo told the board.

He is also hopeful that the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission will consider lowering the existing water rate during its next meeting.

PSS, under the budget allocation for fiscal year 2012, was provided only $30 million of which $28 million will be utilized in paying for personnel salary while $2 million was earmarked for operation and all others and this include utilities.

According to Waldo, PSS is making monthly payments of approximately $100,000 to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. This, according to the director, is in addition to the $50,000 weekly payment being made by the executive branch as part of the $1.7 million memorandum of agreement with PSS.

“We are making payments of $100,000 a month and also the lieutenant governor is paying the $1.7 million [MOA] and he’s paying approximately $50K a week,” reported Waldo, who refused to elaborate his reports or make comments when asked for clarification by Saipan Tribune after the meeting.

Saipan Tribune learned that PSS incurred a $3 million debt to CUC representing unpaid bills for several months.

This obligation was as of September 2011 and which $1.7 million is absorbed by the central government in acknowledging that it failed to remit the PSS budget allotments in fiscal year 2011. The rest of the amount is to be paid by PSS, which is now expecting a lower obligation as a result of its monthly payment after September.

PSS said that the central government owes the system over $3 million which represent the unpaid personnel allotments for last fiscal year 2011. This is categorized as “roll-over” funds that could help PSS in its financial needs this fiscal year 2012.