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Oversight probe on CUC OK’d
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Posted on Jun 21 2008
The Public Utilities and Infrastructure Committee of the Saipan and Northern Islands delegation has unanimously voted to convene a preliminary oversight investigation on the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.
The committee met on June 19, Thursday, and agreed to begin the oversight investigation, identifying several key areas of concern.
These concerns include consistency between statutes, regulations, and policies pertaining to CUC and actual practices; the agency’s financial viability; actual progress and performance of contractors hired to rehabilitate and repair the engines at CUC; plans for short-term power generation relief and long-term solutions, if any, at CUC; and other areas of concern.
“Over the next couple of weeks the committee will be gathering information and documents that would be pertinent to the oversight investigation. Letters should be going out next week and the week after to CUC and other agencies,” said Rep. Tina Sablan, who chairs the committee.
The other committee members are Sen. Frica Pangelinan, Reps. Ed Salas, and committee vice chair Rep. Frank Dela Cruz.
Prior to this action, Sablan asked the chairman of the delegation, Rep. Ray Tebuteb, to ask for his support and authorization to proceed with the oversight investigation.
The next committee meeting will be on July 9 at 1:30pm in the House Chamber.
Sablan said the need for the oversight hearing arose during the June 17 community forum that she and other concerned citizens organized. She said forum participants, numbering about 200 Saipan residents, “overwhelmingly requested and endorsed” a formal legislative oversight on CUC.
At the forum, held at the Multi-Purpose Center, residents came together to express their grievances with the increasing costs and deteriorating quality of utility services on the island. [B][I](Saipan Tribune)[/I][/B]
