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‘CUC would be better off with a board’
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Posted on Mar 23 2006
The president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce believes that the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. would be better off having its own board rather than placed under a line agency of the Executive Branch.
“I think there’s a need to give the CUC board a chance to do its fiduciary duty. I have faith in government boards,” said SCC president Charles V. Cepeda, who was recently appointed to the Northern Marianas College Board of Regents.
The business group official suggested that Gov. Benigno R. Fitial extend the emergency declaration on CUC until it is stable enough to revert to a CUC board.
“I think it’s more favorable that he continues with the emergency declaration until he straightens it and reverts it to the CUC board,” he said.
Upon his assumption to office last January, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial placed the CUC under emergency control, displacing the CUC board. He later issued an executive order converting the corporation into a division under DPW, thus getting rid of the CUC board permanently.
This EO would take effect by the end of this month.
Earlier, Commonwealth Development Authority board chairman Tom Glenn A. Quitugua asked the administration to extend the deadline of the order pending negotiations between the CDA and CUC on debt settlement and financing plans.
The CUC has been under emergency declaration since May 2005 during the Babauta administration due to the lack of a stable fuel supply and the near collapse of its power generation plants.
The administration, which lifted the emergency declaration in December 2005, had provided CUC huge subsidies for fuel and repair of engines.
The current administration has re-imposed the emergency control and continues to provide CUC substantial subsidies.
