CUC: No payments yet from PSS, CHC

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. failed to receive any payments yesterday from both the Public School System and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., so power will remain disconnected to some of their offices, according to CUC executive director Abe Utu Malae yesterday.

CUC started disconnecting non-critical areas of both PSS and the corporation Tuesday afternoon following the agencies’ failure to pay their obligations, amounting to $4.1 million for public schools and $2.1 million for the healthcare corporation.

Malae told Saipan Tribune that CUC would like to see a payment of at least $400,000 from each agency before they restore power to the disconnected offices. Nothing was received from both agencies as of 4:30pm yesterday.

Both corporation chief financial and administrative officer Alvaro Santos and PSS acting commissioner Glenn Muña separately confirmed the non-payment yesterday.

Malae reiterated that only the administrative offices of certain public schools were disconnected from the power grid and that classrooms remain functional, with power and water supplies. He said that CUC restored power yesterday to certain accounts that have water pumps powered from the schools’ administrative offices.

On Tuesday, Board of Education chair Marylou S. Ada tried to seek help from the Executive Branch officials to avert the disconnections, to no avail.

Malae said that nobody intervened with CUC or pressured him to restore power to the disconnected accounts.

“I received no pressure whatsoever. I hope PSS can rearrange their budget to make room for utilities just as the central government has done. NMC [Northern Marianas College] used to be delinquent but they have all caught up,” he said.

Education officials and their supporters trooped to the Legislature yesterday to seek help from lawmakers. Deliberations were still ongoing as of 5pm. CUC officials were scheduled to separately meet with Senate leaders yesterday afternoon.

Saipan Tribune learned that CUC received a check from PSS yesterday afternoon but this was for the federally funded Head Start program.

‘Disconnection completed-for now’

The disconnections at PSS and CHC are completed-for now, said Malae.

On the PSS side, 12 accounts lost their power supply, including the administrative offices of San Vicente, Koblerville, San Antonio, William S. Reyes, and Tanapag elementary schools, Marianas High School, and Hopwood Junior High School.

For the healthcare corporation, eight accounts were cut off from the grid, including the offices of substance abuse treatment and seven accounts of the Division of Public Health, including the Diabetes Resource Center, Bureau of Environmental Health Services, Mental Health Services, and STD/HIV program. All these offices were relocated yesterday to the hospital so they could continue operating.

According to Malae, also on the disconnection list was the Medical Supply Office of CHC but this was cancelled after a request from corporation chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta to maintain the power at MSO because it contains perishable pharmaceuticals.

“These offices [on the disconnect list] are related to ‘non-acute care’ including most public health offices. Even though the MSO [Medical Supply Office] was on the disconnect list, CEO Babauta asked that service be maintained because it contained perishable pharmaceuticals. We agreed,” Malae said.