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Fitial wants CUC privatized before his final term ends
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Posted on May 30 2012
By Haidee V. Eugenio
Reporter
Reporter
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial wants the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to be privatized before his second and last term expires in 2015.
Press secretary Angel Demapan said the privatization of CUC “had always been the vision of the Fitial administration.”
“The central government does not have the financial ability to subsidize the operations of CUC,” he said.
“Politics,” according to Fitial, prevented CUC privatization from happening during his first term. He said CUC’s current leadership doesn’t seem to consider privatization.
Fitial recently placed CUC under a state of emergency and accepted Abe Malae’s resignation as CUC executive director last week. Malae believes that privatizing CUC is not feasible, among other things.
Demapan said there has not been an assessment yet of how viable CUC privatization is. One of CUC’s power plants on Saipan is being operated by a private firm.
Besides privatization of CUC, the Fitial administration wants to speed up contract awards to Japan-based Saipan Solar System and U.S.-based American Capital Energy Co. to provide an additional 20 or 10 megawatts each of alternative or renewable energy, particularly photovoltaic solar energy.
The Fitial administration is also pushing for the privatization of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., which is also under an extended state of emergency.
