Rep. Ramon A. Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) believes that both the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. are being \u201cmismanaged.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CUC and CHCC are currently in a tug of war of some sort regarding the payment of outstanding and current obligations that CHCC owes the CUC.<\/p>\n
Overall, it is reported that the CHCC owes CUC some $16 million. A court order has barred the CUC from \u201cdisconnecting\u201d the CHCC.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it bankruptcy or is it mismanagement?\u201d Tebuteb said.<\/p>\n
For the CUC, he said the utilities firm is still laden with a slew of issues and stipulated orders. Its board is also \u201cpoliticizing\u201d the situation, Tebuteb said.<\/p>\n
One solution, he said, is that the government should \u201cremove\u201d the members of the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government needs to remove the board of the CUC. They (the board) are politicizing this thing. You can even look at the qualifications of these board members,\u201d Tebuteb lamented.<\/p>\n
He added that, \u201cCUC is working OK with its projects, but the interference of the board\u201d is a concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this CUC is heading toward a receivership telephone pole\u201d which will affect all ratepayers.<\/p>\n
Although he did not disclose more details about the CHCC, which also has a board, Tebuteb is urging the current government to look into these political appointees.<\/p>\n
For Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan), the chair of the Senate Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications, a proposed deal on how the CHCC can settle its debts to the CUC is a positive development.<\/p>\n
He said he is \u201chighly favorable\u201d to the agreement that is proposed for the CUC and CHCC.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the court, CHCC is bankrupt. How can it pay? One way is to allow CHCC to pay the $150,000 per month to the CUC,\u201d Igisomar said.<\/p>\n
The senator said CUC can still charge \u201cstandby\u201d fees, while CHCC continues its program to have sustainable energy in accordance to the CNMI\u2019e existing net metering law.<\/p>\n
He said is it is a long-term plan, \u201cbut it is an innovative plan, if they (CUC) only agree to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI really support this agreement and I hope it moves forward,\u201d Igisomar said, adding that he also hopes that the Attorney General\u2019s Office approves the legal format, and the two groups can negotiate in good faith.<\/p>\n
Payment plan<\/strong><\/p>\n Two days ago, the CNMI\u2019s public utility board has directed its management to work out a payment plan with the CHCC after discussions over the health corporation\u2019s proposed monthly payment of about $150,000.<\/p>\n If it had been voted for, the $150,000 monthly payment would have been finalized despite the local hospital owing about $560,000 in utility bills per month.<\/p>\n The CHCC owes the CUC some $16 million in past due accounts. In March, a local court granted CUC right to disconnect the hospital\u2019s \u201cnon-essential\u201d units, which the utility has since done.<\/p>\n The payment plan was described in a letter from CHCC this month. The letter described CHCC\u2019s intent to pay $150,000 a month until it got its \u201crenewable energy\u201d plans up and running in a year.<\/p>\n CUC board chair Adelina Roberto said this $150,000 was a \u201cminimum\u201d and that they were working on was a \u201cdraft contract.\u201d<\/p>\n This draft contract is essentially a law to draft. Copies of a draft \u201cSenate bill\u201d legislation had been shared among the board and management since a payment plan would have to be approved by law.<\/p>\n The CHCC letter was requested but not made available as of press time. Roberto said it would be made public after CUC had decided on the payment plan.<\/p>\n CUC management will now start discussion with CHCC to work out a payment plan. CUC would like to determine exactly how much the local hospital could pay them per month.<\/p>\n A board member of the CHCC earlier said the hospital\u2019s payment of $150,000 \u201cwas better than nothing.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rep. Ramon A. Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) believes that both the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and Commonwealth Healthcare…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[666,140,49,244],"class_list":["post-205761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-chcc","tag-commonwealth-healthcare-corp","tag-cuc","tag-utility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}