Govt makes good promise to reconcile delinquent accounts
The CNMI government has made good on its promise to reconcile its delinquent utility bills and has paid over $3 million of the over $13 million owed to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.
During a CUC board meeting last week, former acting executive director Betty Terlaje informed the board that the CNMI government continues to reconcile its delinquent accounts with CUC and has made its promised 25% payment for its May reconciliation in the amount of $2.5 million.
The $2.5 million is on top of the $1.7 million that the CNMI government paid CUC back in April following its initial meeting with CUC to address arrears and how to resolve them.
In an interview with Terlaje, she explained that last April, CUC met with Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and his staff and reached an agreement to reconcile delinquent government utility accounts.
In total, Terlaje said the CNMI government owes CUC $13 million in arrears.
Based on CUC and the CNMI’s government’s reconciliation agreement, the CNMI government would reconcile 15 accounts at a time and would be given 30-days to pay 25% of the reconciled amount. This will continue until the arrears are paid off in 2027.
“When we had our status conference with [U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge] David Carter at the end of February, the judge had asked for the governor and his staff to come in and they did and agreed to pay their bill moving forward as well as arrears which amounted to $13 million. They agreed to reconcile their accounts with CUC and upon reconciliation, they were given a timeline to reconcile it. Every time they would reconcile, they would pay 25% of the accounts they reconciled, and every year after that they’d pay another 25% until the arrears have been paid off. So, based on this, the $13 million should be paid off by 2027 and the CNMI government should be current on their bills moving forward after that,” she said.
The latest reconciliation, Terlaje said, was made last May 1 and based off of the first 15 reconciled accounts, the total in arrears was about $10 million. Terlaje said as of last week, the CNMI government has made its promised 25% payment which is about $2.5 million.
“They have met the 25% for the May reconciliation. So how it works, they reconcile May 1, and they have 30 days to pay that. Then, they are supposed to reconcile the next 15 accounts by June 1, and they have 30 days to pay that. This continues until all accounts are reconciled,” she said.
Terlaje said aside from the May reconciliation, the CNMI government had reconciled about $1.7 million following their initial meeting back in April.
“The CNMI government has already reconciled $1.7 million, that was the amount that they agreed to pay when we first met. Then they have reconciled their first 15 accounts which amounted over $10 million, and they’ve paid 25%. They’ve been paying in instalments but as of last week, they have paid the full 25%. Now, the next reconciliation that is supposed to wrap up by June 1, that 25%, they have 30 days to pay that, and that will continue until all the accounts are reconciled,” Terlaje said.
Betty G. Terlaje
