‘Autonomous no more’

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will cease to be an autonomous agency and will instead become a division of the Department of Public Works when Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s first executive order becomes effective in two months.

Executive Order 2006-1, which forms part of Fitial’s government reorganization plan, will abolish the CUC board of directors and transfer its functions to DPW.

Pursuant to the order, CUC will be headed by a chief executive officer, rather than an executive director. He or she will have the rank of a division director.

Signed by Fitial on Jan. 27, 2006, the executive order will take effect 60 days after submission to the Legislature, unless modified or disapproved by a majority of each house.

In the meantime, CUC will remain in direct control by the administration in accordance to Fitial’s state of emergency declaration for CUC.

Also on Friday, Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez announced the appointment of former CUC board member Velma Ann Palacios to serve as the utility firm’s executive director. Palacios, who currently works for PTI-Verizon, will assume office in two weeks, Villagomez said.

In his first-ever executive order, Fitial maintained that the Constitution provides the Governor’s Office the authority to make changes in the allocation of offices, agencies, and instrumentalities, and in their functions and duties, as necessary for efficient administration.

“The existence of a multitude of offices, agencies, and instrumentalities outside of the principal departments has resulted in duplication of functions, overlaps of responsibility, lack of coordination, and other forms of inefficient administration,” the order noted.

To promote government efficiency, CUC will be allocated to DPW “for purposes of administration and coordination as a major component of the department equivalent to a division and have as its head a chief executive officer who shall have the rank of a division director.”

The executive order also tasked the governor’s special assistant for management and budget, special assistant for administration, and the personnel director to consult with each other regarding the integration of the CUC personnel.

“CUC right now is boardless and CUC right now doesn’t have an executive director. So CUC is at present in a state of disarray. We need to move in and take control of CUC,” Fitial said in a press conference Friday.