{"id":406397,"date":"2024-03-08T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=406397"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"CUC-gov-t-agree-to-payment-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/CUC-gov-t-agree-to-payment-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"CUC, gov\u2019t agree to payment plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acting Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Betty G. Terlaje disclosed yesterday that CUC and the CNMI government have agreed to allow a payment plan to address the government\u2019s utility billing arrears, which has now ballooned to a whopping $77.8 million.<\/p>\n

Terlaje said during the CUC board special meeting that the CNMI will pay bills when due and for the 2021 arrears ($1.7 million), the government will pay $400,000 by April 1, 2024 and submit a payment plan for payment of all by April 1, 2027.<\/p>\n

She said they will be reconciling the government\u2019s arrears for 2022, 2023, and 2024.<\/p>\n

Terlaje said, in an interview during a break of the meeting, that as of Jan. 31, 2024, the central government owed about $11.5 million plus $1.5 million for fees, so all together it\u2019s about $13 million arrears.<\/p>\n

Terlaje said the government is not contesting the $1.7 million and that anything after the $1.7 million, they would sit with CUC to go over the billings.<\/p>\n

Terlaje said they assisted the central government in reconciling the accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo right off the bat they will pay $400,000 by April 1 and then we will reconcile the first 15 accounts, top 15 accounts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Terlaje said once they reconciled, the government will make payment of 25% of arrears 30 days later.<\/p>\n

By June 1, the next 50 accounts will be reconciled and payment of 25% arrears 30 days later.<\/p>\n

By July 1, the next 50 accounts will be reconciled and there will be payment of 35% arrears 30 days later.<\/p>\n

By Aug. 1, the next 50 accounts will be reconciled and there will be payment of 25% arrears 30 days later.<\/p>\n

By Sept. 1, the rest of accounts will be reconciled and there will be payment of 25% arrears 30 days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo every time we reconcile accounts, they would pay 25% within 30 days, and the balance added on to the April 1 balance, which every year will be paid, and they have up to 2027 to pay off the balance,\u201d Terlaje said.<\/p>\n

She said it\u2019s an informal settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice because they (DOJ) asked the federal court to intervene.<\/p>\n

Terlaje said, however, because CUC has agreed to work with the government on helping them reconcile, DOJ is satisfied with that agreement.<\/p>\n

She said they are working with Department of Finance to help them identify the payments that they\u2019ve made to CUC over some period of time.<\/p>\n

Regarding the hospital arrears, Terlaje said the CNMI will work with the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. to assure that the next Memorandum of Understanding will result in payment of some arrears.<\/p>\n

Terlaje said CHCC made their payments based on the MOU and so hopefully that will continue with the current payments.<\/p>\n

Terlaje said they want to see another MOU so CHCC can continue to keep current and in addition address the arrears.<\/p>\n

She said in their books, CHCC has $60 million in arrears, and that $32.9 million is for charges.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Acting Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Betty T. Terlaje talks about CUC and the government\u2019s payment plan to address the government\u2019s utility billing arrears during the CUC board special meeting yesterday.<\/p>\n

-FERDIE DE LA TORRE
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Acting Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Betty G. Terlaje disclosed yesterday that CUC and the…<\/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-406397","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\/406397","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=406397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}