Review on bids for project enters second phase

Saying it is “extremely pleased” with the findings of an independent evaluator, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. agreed yesterday to conduct a second round of review on the long-stalled power plant on Saipan in efforts to determine the contractor of the $120 million project.

“We are in the right direction,” said board chair Juan S. Dela Cruz. “There will be a second round of review.. I hope that it will come early so we can have a decision right away on who will build the plant as soon as possible.”

The announcement followed a closed-door meeting at the Hafa Adai Hotel in which CUC directors discussed a preliminary report on the initial review of the private engineering firm Burns & McDonnell.

The government-owned utility corporation, however, declined to provide specific details on the report, saying the board will meet again next week to disclose results of the independent review.

“While the report will not be released until it is final, we are extremely pleased with its findings,” Dela Cruz said after the one-hour meeting.

Brushing aside attempts by some quarters to “cloud the issues and influence our decision,” the CUC chair said the board will await the final report and “if necessary, continue with the reevaluation process through the best and final offers.”

When asked about the findings, Dela Cruz told reporters the independent evaluator is doing “a good job in evaluating the companies. That’s what I can see at this time.”

Burns & McDonnell has been going over all proposals submitted almost two years ago by 13 companies bidding for the project since CUC hired the Kansas-based firm in January upon recommendation by the Office of the Public Auditor.

The 80-megawatt plant, designed to meet increasing power demand on Saipan by decade’s end, has stalled for the last seven months on the heels of mounting protests against a CUC decision to award the contract to Japan’s Marubeni Corp. and its U.S. partner Sithe Energies, Inc.

The deal has since been called off pending results of the independent review which is expected to be completed in the next few weeks, according to CUC officials.

“I am extremely confident, however, that the reevaluation process will do nothing but build the people’s confidence in the CUC board’s ability to make its own decisions and in the people’s ability to locally manage its own island utility,” Dela Cruz said.

Close competitor Enron International earlier has called for a comprehensive review of the various proposals to include the “best and final offers” handed in during the initial review conducted last year by an in-house selection committee.

The Texas-based industrial firm and a consortium of Alsons, Tomen, Singapore Power and Tan Holdings Corp. have both pending protest with the OPA against the Marubeni-Sithe agreement, alleging technical deficiencies in its bid and incompetence of the CUC panel of reviewer.

Touted to be the largest ever contract in the CNMI, the Saipan project will be constructed through the build-operate-transfer scheme under a 25-year agreement.

There has been a move in the legislature to provide full faith and credit backing to the earlier deal in an attempt to fast-track its construction which was initially scheduled last December.