Palacios on CUC arrears: I want to see this resolved

After meeting with U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge David Carter last week to discuss issues between the CNMI administration and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said steps have been made to address the issues and he hopes a resolution is forthcoming.

According to Palacios, as soon as he returned to Saipan last Thursday, he met with Carter to discuss the amount the CNMI government owes CUC and come up with ways to address the alleged arrears.

“We had a very productive meeting last Thursday afternoon, inclusive of CUC, the secretary of Finance, Attorney General’s Office, and the attorneys of the Department of Justice and [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] representatives. The judge asked us to sit down and see what needs to be done to put CUC and the whole issue on a better roadmap moving forward and that it doesn’t continue…in perpetuity,” he said.

At the meeting, CUC and the CNMI Finance Department said that they have their respective records and the numbers on the arrears do not match up, Palacios said.

“So, we hammered out an agreement and roadmap on what we need to do. There’s obviously a situation where CUC and our Department of Finance’s figures do not line up and need to be reconciled. The figures are vastly different; significant differences were seen. One of the tasks is for the Department of Finance and CUC staff to sit down and really put all their numbers together and within the next 30 days, we should have results and put forth an agreement for judge Carter to consider,” he said.

“We’ve come out with an agreement on a timeline to address those. It’s about a $1.7 million outstanding billing. Obviously, it’s CUC’s contention that the central government had not made any payments at all, but it’s the Department of Finance’s contention that we did. They have their own respective records that they must reconcile together. That’s where we’re at and I’m hoping this will be resolved,” Palacios added.

Palacios said he hopes to see this issue resolved in the next few months. “I certainly want to see this resolved, CUC and Finance want to see this resolved, and I don’t want to continue to see or hear that this administration is not taking any steps to discuss the issue with CUC and come up with some beneficial solutions for the Commonwealth,” he said.

CUC issued last year numerous disconnection notices to different government agencies, which essentially meant the CNMI administration failed to make payments for utility bills. Saipan Tribune learned due to the alleged nonpayment, the CNMI administration has already racked up arrears worth millions of dollars.

Arnold I. Palacios