CUC sees $1.9M in losses
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. reports that following the first month of fiscal year 2025, it saw a net operating loss of over $1.9 million.
Last week, CUC held a regular board meeting where they discussed a number of things including financial reports.
According to CUC chief financial officer Betty Terlaje, as of October, CUC saw a net operating loss of over $1.9 million.
“It’s based off of revenue we billed from October and expenses we accrued in October,” she said.
However, Terlaje says as the year progresses, the financial picture gets better but she was obligated to report this loss to the board during the meeting.
“Overtime, you see a better picture. However, it’s my obligation to let the board know where we stand since October. There were other revenues that made up for it and so we didn’t have net loss or net income. But I had to report that the operating revenue and operating expenses, there was a net operating loss there,” she said.
CUC has a long list of outstanding accounts, one of the most notable being the CNMI government and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.
Previously, CUC and the CNMI government signed a memorandum of agreement clearing most of the outstanding amounts owed by the central government to CUC.
The MOA outlines a framework where arrears owed by the CNMI central government to CUC for utility services rendered will be offset against arrears owed by CUC to the Office of the Public Auditor pursuant to 1 CMC § 7831, which provides that government corporations must remit 1% of their operations budget to OPA.
The CNMI Department of Finance has estimated that CUC owes about $18 million in arrears in outstanding public auditor fees. The exact amount is disputed between CUC and Finance, but both agree the balance is at least $10.9 million.
With CHCC, on the other hand, CUC continues to work with the agency to settle its over $68 million balance in utility arrears.
According to CUC executive director Kevin Watson, he and his team have been meeting with CHCC to discuss how they can catch up with their arrears.
Meanwhile, CUC CFO Terlaje shared that she and Watson has even brought up the possibility of waiving the penalties CHCC owes if CHCC agrees with certain terms and conditions.
Of course, Terlaje said this is all subject to an agreement between both parties.
In 2023, CUC signed an MOU with CHCC in which CHCC agreed to pay $525,000 a month to address over $53 million in utility arrears.
In a previous interview with Terlaje, she shared that CHCC’s MOU with CUC expired last May.
Terlaje, during the interview, said in order to address arrears reflective of utility usage increase, a new memorandum of understanding with CHCC needs to be executed.
Betty G. Terlaje
