Fitial: Collect all past due CUC payments

Gov. Benigno Fitial is urging Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Antonio Muña to pursue all past due accounts owed the utility company.

A recent report by Georgetown Consulting showed that CUC’s accounts receivable totaled $31.2 million in fiscal year 2007, $9.6 million of which came from government agencies.

In a statement, Fitial said he wants Muña to pursue all collections because “the cash-strapped CNMI government, which has had to dramatically reduce its operating budget, is in no position to subsidize CUC operations.”

According to the statement, Muña has said the CNMI central government is now current in its utility payments, but is still waiting for the Public School System to pay more than $1 million in past utility usage fees.

“At the end of the day, disconnection will not be up to CUC; it will have to be done by urgent necessity, as a result of actions taken by Mobil, Telesource, Aggreko, PMIC, and Shell—CUC’s vendors for fuel, power, lube oil, and chlorine,” Muña said in the statement.

CUC also needs funds to meet compliance requirements stipulated in an order recently filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency, which stems from the utility company’s failure to comply with federal regulations governing water, sewer, power, and fuel.

According to Finance Secretary Eloy S. Inos’ fiscal year 2008 preliminary report to the House of Representatives, the government spent $4.6 million on non-allocated utilities and $2.7 million for fuel expenses for the year.

In September, Muña said, CUC was counting on PSS and the central government to pay their past due balance of more than $3 million to help pay for the Aggreko generators.

Up until October 2006, the government paid for PSS’ utility usage, so CUC and PSS officials had earlier determined the government would pay for that portion of the debt. But at the October Board of Education meeting, vice chair Herman Guerrero said Inos told him PSS must pay the $414,000.

The money is still owed, and Guerrero said they would be discussing the issue today at the board’s Fiscal, Personnel and Administration committee meeting.

“It is being discussed as it related to the appropriation measure that was recently passed by the Legislature late last week,” Guerrero said in an e-mail.

The Legislature passed a budget of $165.4-million budget for fiscal year 2009. Under the proposal, personnel costs will account for $112.2 million, or about two-thirds, of the budget. The remainder will go to operations, $43.7 million, and utilities, $9.5 million.