Consortium withdraws protest on 80-megawatt power plant

A multinational consortium opposing initial choice of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation on the contractor of its 80-megawatt power plant on Saipan has withdrawn its protests, according to a CUC statement.

The consortium of Alsons, Tomen, Singapore Power and Tan Holdings Corp. retracted all its six protests filed with CUC as well as all the appeals it made to the Office of Public Auditor regarding the controversial power project.

With the withdrawal, that leaves only Enron International still disputing the selection process conducted by CUC. The Texas-based conglomerate is closely vying to get the multimillion-dollar contract with Marubeni-Sithe.

In the statement, the government-owned utility firm said the group had submitted a notice of withdrawal, informing officials of its decision. There was no detail, however, of the reasons behind the move.

Robert O’Connor, lawyer for the consortium, could not be reached for comment.

The statement only quoted the notice as saying that the consortium “is also withdrawing all appeals which it has taken from denials of these protests.”

Some of its appeals are still pending with the public auditor who has deferred ruling on these issues while an independent evaluator completes its review of all proposals that were submitted for the long-stalled project.

“We had no indication that the Consortium was considering withdrawing its protests, but I can only say we are pleased,” said CUC Executive Director Timothy P. Villagomez in the statement.

“Now we can direct our energies and resources to the process of selection and contract award,” he added.

Burns & McDonnell, a Kansas City-based engineering firm hired by CUC last January as the independent evaluator, is on its second phase of review, deliberating on the “best and final offers” from nine companies, including Alsons, which made it in the initial round.

CUC officials expect to receive their report in the next few weeks for consideration by the Board of Directors which has to choose the single contractor to build the plant.

The $120 million power project, intended to ease shortages on Saipan by the end of the decade, has come under a whirl of protests in the past year since awarding the contract to Marubeni Corporation, a Japanese conglomerate, and its U.S. partner Sithe Energies, Inc. in June 1998.

The consortium, which emerged as one of the top six bidders in the controversial evaluation conducted by CUC management, was the only proposer who took the issue to court when it asked to bar the utility corporation from signing any contract with Marubeni-Sithe.

While the court denied the motion, the utility corporation eventually caved in to mounting pressure when it decided in September last year to cancel its initial deal and send the whole bidding into independent re-evaluation.