{"id":404517,"date":"2024-01-30T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=404517"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"CUC-s-aging-accounts-receivable-increasing-now-97-8M","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/CUC-s-aging-accounts-receivable-increasing-now-97-8M\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018CUC\u2019s aging accounts receivable increasing; now $97.8M\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s aging accounts receivable is progressively increasing and has now reached $97.8 million, according to acting CUC chief financial officer Rodolfo Urbano on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In his financial report during a CUC board meeting, Urbano said majority of the aging accounts receivable\u2014at 62%\u2014is from the CNMI\u2019s lone hospital, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.<\/p>\n

The remaining 38% is shared by the CNMI central government at 12%; residential and commercial customers, 11% each; and the Commonwealth Ports Authority and other government agencies, at 2% each.<\/p>\n

CHCC\u2019s last payment for utility billings, covering the period for November 2023, was received on Jan. 17, 2024, Urbano said, who added that the memorandum of understanding that requires CHCC to pay CUC $525,000 a month will soon expire on May 15, 2024.<\/p>\n

Acting CUC executive director Betty G. Terlaje acknowledged that CHCC is paying, but just late.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve just basically moved their due date,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

CUC and CHCC signed the MOU in May 2023 in a bid to resolve the hospital\u2019s unpaid utility bills, which was already in the millions. Under the MOU, CHCC agrees to resume paying its monthly bills, starting with its April 2023 utility bill of about $525,000. CUC will continue to make regular, timely, and continuous payment, like any regular paying utility consumers. If CHCC fails, reneges, or defaults on the MOU, CUC will disconnect utilities of CHCC\u2019s facilities.<\/p>\n

The agreement also requires CUC and CHCC to continue ongoing negotiations to settle $53 million in the hospital\u2019s outstanding arrears\u2014overdue electric, water, wastewater, and late fees.<\/p>\n

Urbano said everything is up to date regarding CUC\u2019s accounts payable, as every expenditure is budgeted and accounted for.<\/p>\n

\u201cPayables are current and vendors are paid on time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for the CUC\u2019s overall financial standing, Urbano said billing revenues and expenditures have been averaging $9 million to $10 million in the past three months.<\/p>\n

As for CUC\u2019s budget, Urbano said it\u2019s only the first quarter of the fiscal year so they don\u2019t see any substantial impact. He said actual expenses are within the budget.<\/p>\n

As of Dec. 31, 2023, CUC has a cash balance of $56.3 million, broken down into $24.2 million in unrestricted cash and $32.1 million in restricted cash, Urbano said.<\/p>\n

The $24.2 million in unrestricted cash is composed of accounts payable, purchase orders and contracts, annual leave, payroll reserve, and reserved for other balance sheet obligations.<\/p>\n

The $32.1 million in restricted cash is reserved for engine maintenance, for CUC projects, American Rescue Plan Act projects, and restricted by local and federal laws.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Acting Commonwealth Utilities Corp. chief financial officer Rodolfo Urbano, extreme right, discusses his financial report during the CUC board meeting last Thursday.<\/p>\n

-FERDIE DE LA TORRE
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The Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s aging accounts receivable is progressively increasing and has now reached $97.8…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404517","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}