The Office of the Attorney General shares the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s view that no further payment should be made to TM Corp., which has insisted they have a $904,619 claim on CUC for a wastewater project completed years ago.<\/p>\n
Essentially, TM\u2019s claim is for a combination of standby costs and claims for \u201chard rock excavation\u201d done during their project in the Chinatown Sewer Project in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
In a letter to CUC, assistant attorney general Christoper Timmons said the records reviewed reflect a disagreement between CUC and TM regarding delayed performance.<\/p>\n
Timmons said, however, that the request should be denied based in part upon the compromise reached and reflected in a \u201cChange Order 2.\u201d This was a \u201cno cost time extension\u201d that encompassed the delays for which TM is seeking compensation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy entering into this change order, TM waived any claims it may have had for standby costs, and in turn, CUC waived its claims for liquidated damages for delayed performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Timmons said that CUC procurement regulations governing the contract provide that \u201cany dispute regarding these events should have been brought by the firm to CUC within 10 days of the facts giving rise to the dispute.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to the extent it disagreed [with CUC\u2019s] determination it should have made a timely appeal,\u201d Timmons added.<\/p>\n
In the OAG letter, Timmons also concurred with CUC\u2019s earlier analysis that the order of precedence for the contract terms and conditions gives \u201cpreference\u201d to the \u201cspecial provisions\u201d in the contract. This, over the plans, specifications, or general provisions.<\/p>\n
The special provisions, Timmons said, clearly indicate that no payment will be made for hard rock excavation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccordingly this claim was properly denied,\u201d Timmons writes.<\/p>\n
And just like the standby issue, any claims should have conformed with CUC procurement regulations and made within 10 days of the facts giving rise to the claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cTM Corp. did not timely appeal the [CUC executive] director\u2019s decision rendered on Aug. 25, 2003, stating \u2018your claims for hard rock and standby charges are not justified and that [sic] no additional payment will be made for them.\u2019 TM Corp. failed to exhaust its administrative remedies in this regard. Instead of following CUC procurement regulations\u2026it is clear from the files that TM Corp. executed Change Order No. 2 on Nov. 10, 2003, in effect waiving its previously asserted claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving waived these claims and having failed to exhaust its administrative remedies, TM Corp. attempted to revive its claims again in August of 2004, then again in 2007, and now again in 2015. Just as its requests were denied previously, they should be denied again,\u201d Timmons said.<\/p>\n
Timmons concluded that the company\u2019s claims have long been \u201ctime barred\u201d as a result of the applicable statute of limitations.<\/p>\n
The OAG recommends that CUC and its board decline to further consider TM\u2019s request, Timmons said, adding that should TM attempt to sue CUC for these claims, the Office of Attorney General would defend the Commonwealth against such charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Office of the Attorney General shares the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s view that no further…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[2626,6744,49,6745],"class_list":["post-209223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-attorney-general","tag-christoper-timmons","tag-cuc","tag-tm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209223","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=209223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}