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Muna: CUC probe on illegal hook-ups an ongoing process
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Posted on Jun 02 2008
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s investigation into people or businesses hooking up illegally to the power grid is an ongoing process, according to CUC executive director Antonio Muna.
In an interview with Saipan Tribune, Muna said they’ve got people in the field who are making observations on power tampering.
When asked if CUC has information as to the percentage of customers involved in illegal connections, Muna said he is not sure.
He said that until CUC has the numbers of people engaged in tampering, the utility agency will not determine as to what extent the illegal connection contributes to the rising power rates situation.
“But anytime anyone steals power and is not paying their fair share, that means that everybody else has to pay whatever these folks don’t pay. So it does affect the power [but] as to what extent does it affects rates at this point I’m not sure,” Muna said.
He assumes that there is tampering going on, especially under the current circumstances.
“What can we do to catch them? That’s something that we need to probably have a better handle on, coming up maybe with a better plan to start the process of sweeping the area and seeing what can be done to pinpoint the tampering issues,” Muna said.
