Govt pushes through with suit vs CUC

After failed negotiations over disputed utility bills, the CNMI government pushed forward with its lawsuit against the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., asking the Superior Court yesterday to junk the utility firm’s request to dismiss the case.

Assistant attorney general James Livingstone said the Finance Department and the Governor’s Office could proceed with the suit and represent other government agencies that are not direct parties in the proceedings.

“The taxpayers of the Commonwealth have been asked to pay for millions of dollars more than their fair share. This has to stop. CUC’s procedural defenses should be rejected and the plaintiffs’ claims should be allowed to proceed,” Livingstone said in a document submitted to court yesterday.

The Finance Department, the Governor’s Office and Finance Secretary Fermin Atalig sued CUC in April last year after the utility firm threatened to disconnect utility services to government agencies. The utility claims that the government owes it millions of dollars in unpaid utility bills.

The government’s suit seeks a court order barring CUC from disconnecting any of its utility services to the government until such time that the firm adjusts its rates and provides the government an opportunity to have its rates and billings reviewed.

The government claims that CUC’s inflated rates for the government have overcharged the CNMI.

“Despite CUC’s failure to correct its illegal and unfair rate structure, and to install meters as required by law, the CNMI has continued to pay for its utility services. In the period since January 1998, the CNMI has paid more than enough to cover its entire electric bill, plus its entire water and sewer bill, had it been billed at the rate charged to all other commercial customers,” Livingstone said.

As an example, he said that the Commonwealth Election Commission had been overcharged for billing the agency a flat rate of $360 monthly for water and sewer services.

“Once a meter was installed, however, it showed that the account should have been billed only $100 per month. As a result, CUC conceded that the account had been overcharged by approximately $8,000 between November 2000 and April 2004,” he added.

Livingstone said that the Finance Department and the Governor’s office could pursue the lawsuit on behalf of all government accounts.