Fate of new power project still uncertain

Despite a meeting yesterday between the governor, lawmakers and officials of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, the fate of the controversial Saipan power project remains uncertain.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, who has kept his hands off the disputes surrounding its procurement, said he was at the meeting to listen some of the concerns raised by members of the Legislature regarding CUC’s handling of the project.

“It’s been my position that the board will seriously look into the needs for utilities in the future because we don’t want to wait here where we are left with no choice and having power outage,” he told reporters after the meeting.

The governor finally was given a copy of the report made by independent consultants from Burns & McDonnell which was the sole basis for the controversial decision by CUC to scale down the project from an 80-megawatt plant to 60 MW and cancel the original request for proposal.

“I don’t know what will happen [next]. From the information we received, [CUC] will put out pre-qualification bidding,” added Mr. Tenorio.

CUC Executive Director Timothy P. Villagomez disclosed that the Kansas City-based engineering firm is finalizing the scope of the fresh round of procurement that may include the pre-qualification bidding to fast-track the project.

Yesterday’s meeting held at the Governor’s Office was intended to address some of the concerns of both the Legislature and the government-owned utility corporation since the board voted to scrap the initial plan last week.

“We are committed to resolving this issue,” Mr. Villagomez explained in a separate interview. “If the oversight hearing is going to take place, we have been assured by the Legislature that this will not hamper the procurement process.”

Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes, who attended the meeting along with his colleagues Thomas P. Villagomez and Ricardo S. Atalig, maintained he was still unsatisfied with the explanation offered by CUC board to collapse the RFP. 

He said the board reiterated in the meeting that the new project will not require full-faith and credit backing from the Legislature, but he added that he was not given an idea of what CUC’s next steps would be.

“There is no definite plan. I hope we are not going to have another merry-go-round,” added Reyes, who has called for investigation into the project.

Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez, who chairs the Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications Committee, said he plans to meet with utility officials and members of the House counterpart to seek solution to the controversy. (BS)