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Inos renews ‘state of emergency’ for CUC
Gov. Eloy S. Inos extended again the declaration of a state of emergency for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.
The declaration allows the governor to reprogram funds, suspend procurement laws or rules to address the emergency, and for CUC to retain staff that are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States, among others.
CUC has been under a state of emergency for about 10 years now.
Inos signed the declaration on Saturday. It cites the existing financial and technical worker crisis of the utility and the importance of CUC as the sole electric supplier of the CNMI’s schools and hospital, among others.
“CUC is owed over $20 million by the Public School System and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and is owed over millions more by other users,” Inos said.
Inos also cited CUC’s “days’ worth of purchased diesel fuel to power its system” because of the lack of funds to buy oil from its sole, cash-only supplier. CUC has no credit to do this.
According to the most recent information provided by CUC’s chief financial officer Matthew Yaquinto, the government owes CUC $33.71 million as of May 6, 2015.
Since the start of the fiscal year, the Commonwealth Health Center has been billed $3.8 million. CUC has collected $569,165. Total debt sits at $16,273,384.
So far this year, PSS has been billed $1.66 million. CUC has collected $1.48 million. PSS’ debt sits at $8.3 million.
According to a CUC report on reserve funds for operations, CUC has $1.7 million set aside for fuel purchases.
Total cash reserves after obligations and what has been spent sits at $12.51 million as of May 6, 2015.
Yaquinto noted in a recent presentation to the board that if cash reserves “on hand” gets down to $500,000, CUC would have to start contingency plan inclusive of forced disconnection of all non-paying accounts, targeted load shedding, the deferral of all stipulated order activities, and the move to “rolling blackout” schedule.
According to CUC, they have division and administration expenses totaling $38.13 million as of the second quarter of this fiscal year.
