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House tackles CUC privatization bills
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Posted on Nov 23 2006
The House of Representatives is poised to act today on two bills that will pave the way for the planned privatization of Saipan’s power system.
House Speaker Oscar M. Babauta has called lawmakers for a special session today to discuss House Bill 15-191 and Senate Bill 15-62.
H.B. 15-191 seeks to amend the recently enacted Public Utilities Commission Act. It would lower qualifications for utility commissioners and allow Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to proceed with its privatization plan and keep its new rate schedule in place while PUC is being formed.
S.B. 15-62 proposes to amend the law that waived CUC’s $45.5 million debt to the Commonwealth Development Authority. Authored by Senate President Joseph Mendiola, the bill originally sought to remove a provision that requires any company taking over the power plant to pay half of the written-off debt. But Lower House amended the bill; it retained the payment requirement and proposed that the money be used for several government programs and projects. The Senate rejected the House amendment and a conference committee was formed.
Babauta said yesterday that the joint panel, led by Sen. Maria Pangelinan and Rep. Francisco Dela Cruz, is ready to report on the bill.
The committee has reportedly agreed to keep the payment requirement. But rather than distributing the money, it wants the $22.5 million to stay with CUC. The funds would be used to subsidize the utility consumers’ fees for 18 months.
“This will alleviate the hardship caused by recent increases to the CUC rates, while we install the new power generation system,” Babauta said.
He also said that both the PUC and the CUC debt waiver bills need to be acted on before CUC issues the request for proposals for the privatization plan.
Acting Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez announced to U.S. businessmen at last week’s investment conference in Hawaii that the RFP will come out within several weeks.
