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Sablan wants CUC to collect central govt’s arrears ASAP
Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board chair David Sablan Jr. wants the public utilities corporation to start collecting on the CNMI central government’s arrears immediately.
The CNMI government, not including the Public School System and Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., owes CUC a total of $2 million.
According to the latest information obtained by Saipan Tribune, the CNMI’s central government already has $1.3 million available and still needs $700,000 more.
Sablan, who also talked about PSS’ and CHC’s arrears, brought up the central government’s past dues as well.
According to CUC legal counsel James Sirok, CUC can do what they want to do now and that they can even disconnect the government’s electricity already.
Sablan told Sirok that it would be better to have a discussion with Gov. Eloy S. Inos first rather than disconnecting the central government immediately.
Sirok did note that not including past arrears, the central government is up to date on its monthly payments.
Sirok told Sablan that there was a $31,000 shortfall in the May billing of this year for the central government. The overall billing for May was $484,000.
“They are trying to reduce their billings,” Sirok said.
Last payment for June was $462,000, which went down, according to CUC’s acting chief financial officer Joanne Aparisio.
Sirok said that they have notified the central government’s legal counsel and was told that as long as the payment equaled the billing and it didn’t include the past arrears it was okay.
“We need to start collecting or we might be back in court for a government lawsuit,” Sablan said.
