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Chamber president dismayed over CUC transfer
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Posted on Mar 30 2006
Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Charles V. Cepeda has expressed dismay over the transfer of the Commonwealth of Utilities Corp. to the Department of Public Works, warning that it would only result in more bureaucratic red tape.
For instance, he said that CUC procurements would now have to go through the CNMI Procurement and Supply Office. CUC used to have its own procurement rules and regulations.
“Decisions will probably take a lot longer this time since DPW would have to go through the regular procurement procedures,” Cepeda said.
Further, he said that putting CUC under a line agency places the decision-making authority ultimately on one person—the governor—rather than a board.
“Honestly, I’m not happy about the transfer. The governor should have just maintained a board,” he said.
Cepeda, a newly confirmed member of the Northern Marianas College Board of Regents, said he believes in government boards, which consist of people from various background, collectively addressing key issues.
House minority leader Arnold I. Palacios had also opposed the CUC transfer, saying it is too big an agency to be reduced to a mere division. He said CUC should be a stand-alone agency.
He said that if the administration wanted to put the agency under the Executive Branch, then it could have just created a separate department for it.
