The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has arranged to meet with the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. next Tuesday to iron out the details of a payment plan for the hospital\u2019s average $500,000 monthly utility bills, acting CUC executive director John Riegel told Saipan Tribune yesterday.<\/p>\n
The hospital owes around $16 million in unpaid bills to CUC. They owe around $560,000 in bills plus penalties per month. Recently, the CUC board drafted a monthly $150,000 payment plan, but gave CUC management a 30-day period late last month to meet and discuss the payment plan with the hospital.<\/p>\n
Riegel on Monday morning told Saipan Tribune they sent a letter last Wednesday to CHCC inviting them to meet. Riegel said yesterday that CHCC has since replied to the letter.<\/p>\n
In June, CHCC chief executive officer Esther Mu\u00f1a proposed a minimum of $150,000 in monthly payments until CHCC completed a \u201crenewable energy\u201d system. However, CUC would like to know more about these renewable energy plans and determine exactly how much the hospital can pay them.<\/p>\n
In an interview Monday, Riegel said there were \u201cseveral deficiencies\u201d in CHCC\u2019s proposed payment plan and CUC wants to iron out some of those details and talk the terms of the agreement rather than just have a written document.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted to pay an amount that\u2019s less than their monthly usage, which of course just continues to increase their\u201d debts to CUC, he said. \u201cEverybody should pay what they consume, and we would like to work out\u201d a plan \u201cthat is amendable to both parties,\u201d Riegel said.<\/p>\n
CHCC\u2019s 2012 and 2013 audits provided neither a clean, qualified, nor adverse opinion but rather a \u201cdisclaimer\u201d of an opinion. In their audit, Mu\u00f1a explained they were unable to determine the propriety of receivables and inventories for 2013 and 2012 as they \u201ccould not substantiate general ledger balances due to inadequacies in accounting records.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cdisclaimer,\u201d among the identified 15 \u201cmaterial weakness\u201d in the hospital\u2019s internal control structure, prompted CUC chief financial officer Matthew Yaquinto to suggest to the CUC board last week that they think \u201cout of the box\u201d and help CHCC determine the state of their finances.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy don\u2019t we tell them, you keep your $150,000 a month for three or four months, [and] procure a consultant to help you with your billing system, collections, and finances, etc.,\u201d Yaquinto explained to Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
Yaquinto said he could act as a project manager and oversee the work because it helps both companies.<\/p>\n
Some of the CHCC audit\u2019s material weaknesses included the lack of accounting policies and controls over the financial reporting process; lack of established monitoring control procedures to determine the accuracy and completeness of transactions; lack of established policies and procedures for revenue recognition; inadequate file maintenance and untimely recording of transactions; and the lack of control over monitoring and approval of purchases\/disbursements, travel advances, adherence to procurement rules and regulations and proper systematic filing of relevant documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has arranged to meet with the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. next Tuesday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[666,49,5903,38],"class_list":["post-207908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-chcc","tag-cuc","tag-matthew-yaquinto","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207908","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}