Marubeni dismisses bribery allegations

Marubeni Corporation broke its silence yesterday for the first time to deny allegations that it bribed Commonwealth Utilities Corporation Executive Director Timothy P. Villagomez to win the contract on the controversial Saipan power project.

The Japanese conglomerate does not have any relations with certain Mr. Kobayashi of the NK3 Corporation, nor it has ties with that company, according to a statement issued by its lawyers on Saipan, Carlsmith Ball.

The charges linking Marubeni, one of the bidders on the mothballed 80-megawatt plant, to the purported wrongdoing committed by Mr. Villagomez were part of an affidavit that it said had already been discredited by the Attorney General’s Office.

“The allegations and implications in the affidavit that NK3 was a representative of Marubeni or spoke for the company are utterly false,” said the statement sent to news agencies.

“Any suggestion that Marubeni bribed anyone in any way to influence the evaluation process in connection with the Saipan power plant project is utterly false. This is not the way Marubeni Corp. conducts business,” it added.

The company was reacting to the allegations contained in the affidavit of Alice Fleming Villagomez, ex-wife of the CUC chief, which is at the center of the investigation sought by Sen. Ramon S. Guerrero.

These claims had fueled speculations that the government-owned utility corporation was favoring Marubeni and its U.S. partner Sithe Energies, Inc. to build the plant because of the bribe.

Its bid won in the initial evaluation conducted by CUC’s in-house selection committee that included Mr. Villagomez. Awarding of the $120 million contract, however, was called off after the utility corporation was forced to hire independent consultants for another round of review due to mounting protests.

No ties

Although Mr. Villagomez has called the bribery charges “lies” and has threatened to bring the issue to court, Marubeni was forced to break its silence to clear its name and set the record straight.

Echoing CUC’s statement that the AGO had dismissed the allegations, it stressed it never had relations with NK3 — the company that the affidavit claimed was represented by Mr. Kobayashi, who was also reportedly a local representative of Marubeni.

“Marubeni Corp. has no ownership interest in NK3 and NK3 has no ownership interest in Marubeni. Marubeni has never had a contractual relationship with NK3 either in connection with the Saipan power plant project or any other project anywhere in the world. NK3 has never been a subcontractor of Marubeni,” said the statement.

Citing the initial report made by private engineering firm Burns & McDonnell that rated its proposal the best, Marubeni questioned the results of the second round of re-evaluation on their “best and final offers” that ranked it below three other firms.

“The evaluation does not make sense. In the prior evaluations Marubeni ranked highest in the area of past experience, and in the last evaluation it ranked lowest in past experience. Past experience did not change in the several months between evaluations,” it said.

Marubeni, however, backed CUC’s decision to scale it back to 60-MW despite what it said as “difficulties and disappointments” it encountered with the project. The utility corporation is expected to issue an invitation to bid this month to push the new power plant.

“We remain confident in the integrity of the CUC board of directors and its executive director and believe they will continue to exercise their authority responsibly for the people of the CNMI,” it said.