Directors of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board who had gone on a recent trip to South Korea said that it was an \u201cexploratory\u201d and \u201ceducational\u201d trip to see options on how to improve utilities on Saipan.<\/p>\n
CUC board interim secretary Albert Taitano and board treasurer Joe Torres went to South Korea together with water division manager Richard Wasser last month. It was not clear why there was no representative from CUC\u2019s power division. <\/p>\n
For the board members\u2019 expenses, the trip was paid for by the administration. However, expenses for Wasser were paid for by CUC. <\/p>\n
Torres said the trip was an \u201copportunity\u201d to see what Korea has and it was closer. He added that it was Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog who was \u201cthe one who sent us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur trip is an exploratory trip to see some generators and water desalination and also the solar which is the LNG (liquified natural gas) factory. It was a very educational trip and we\u2019re looking into those issues as to what we can do upon to help the utility go back into better infrastructure,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur trip to Korea is exploratory and for the board members to see what options are out there to address our issues in Saipan especially with regards to power and water because for me, coming from Rota where we have 24-hour water, and drinking water, it\u2019s sad that Saipan doesn\u2019t have that,\u201d Taitano echoed.<\/p>\n
Wasser declined to disclose information on the trip when asked by media on a separate occasion.<\/p>\n
CUC board vice chair Eric San Nicolas, who wasn\u2019t part of the trip but had earlier gone to Fiji with other CUC board members and with Gov. Ralph DLG Torres for a \u201cfact-finding mission,\u201d also echoed what his colleagues said that, \u201cThis fact-finding trip was to see what options CUC could have to potentially resolve these issues especially water, it has been an issue for 14 years. We have taken a position in this board that we are going to look for real solutions.\u201d <\/p>\n
Asked how the trip will affect their ongoing discussion for the Integrated Resource Plan, Torres said an IRP is still on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still haven\u2019t decided with the Integrated Resource, it\u2019s still on the table and we\u2019ll probably discuss that in Rota,\u201d Taitano said, referring to the CUC board\u2019s upcoming public hearing on Rota next week.<\/p>\n
When asked if what they\u2019ve seen in Korea is something that is feasible on Saipan, Torres said, \u201cEverything is feasible if it\u2019s done correctly. What\u2019s there and what\u2019s here is no different to the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Procurement, funding matters<\/strong><\/p>\n Board members said that for anything that will be implemented in the Commonwealth, they will still go through the proper procurement process.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, we\u2019re not intended to circumvent any law or what not. We\u2019re bound by that,\u201d San Nicolas said.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is on the table. We don\u2019t do anything below the table. Everything has to be discussed. Everything has to be legal,\u201d Torres said. <\/p>\n San Nicolas said funding for would-be projects will be looked at, adding that they are finding options so as not to burden customers by increasing rates. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are ways to fund these things and that\u2019s where the other entities, the Executive branch, CDA (Commonwealth Development Authority), that\u2019s where they come in. what source it\u2019s going to come from, right now we\u2019re still in discussion phase,\u201d San Nicolas said. <\/p>\n Last April, CUC requested Torres to declare an emergency for the water situation on Saipan, in the hopes, among other things, to get funding to address the water issues. It is not clear, however, if declaring an emergency will allow for grant money to be used for non-priority listed projects or if CUC can circumvent procurement rules.<\/p>\n If approved, it will be the first time that such an emergency will be declared on Saipan\u2019s water situation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still having that conversation. In the meantime there are action plans that are happening behind the scenes from the corporation side to make sure that we\u2019re addressing the issue as we go forward, whether that gets issued or not, it\u2019s business as usual,\u201d San Nicolas said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Directors of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board who had gone on a recent trip to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,1421,50,1241],"class_list":["post-227068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cuc","tag-eric-san-nicolas","tag-power","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227068","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}