{"id":414475,"date":"2024-10-10T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=414475"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Employee-who-accused-CUC-of-corruption-placed-on-admin-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Employee-who-accused-CUC-of-corruption-placed-on-admin-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"Employee who accused CUC of corruption placed on admin leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has placed on administrative leave an employee who openly accused CUC of corruption and more during a legislative session and CUC board meeting last week.<\/p>\n

Last Tuesday, CUC executive director Kevin Watson issued a notice for Candice Nicole L.G. Mu\u00f1a, a CUC employee who publicly accused CUC\u2019s administration of corruption in the form of unlawful termination, mismanagement of funds, and more.<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1a made these statements during a CUC board meeting last Friday as well as during a joint public utilities, transportation and communications conference committee meeting last Thursday.<\/p>\n

In addition, Mu\u00f1a expressed her support for oversite by CPUC and to hold CUC accountable.<\/p>\n

In a statement from CUC\u2019s acting executive director Betty Terlaje following the accusations, CUC categorically and unequivocally denies the \u201cunfounded and baseless\u201d accusations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot comment in detail as I respect the confidentiality of the matter and trust the process to resolve Miss Muna\u2019s concerns. However, I will say that we are disappointed that Miss Mu\u00f1a chose to voice her personnel grievance and make unwarranted allegations against management during the House PUTC hearing. We feel that these remarks may inadvertently detract from the important work being done for the very individuals she purports to represent. It is essential to approach these discussions with professionalism and care and allow the grievance process to take place accordingly. These involves personnel matter that is being handled in the proper administrative channels and, thus, CUC will not comment any further,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Then, last Tuesday, Watson served Mu\u00f1a a formal notification placing her on administrative leave effective immediately pending further investigation into a number of incidences.<\/p>\n

First, Watson stated that Mu\u00f1a\u2019s complaint was unsubstantiated and without basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou submitted an entirely unsubstantiated complaint against a colleague. The employee filing the complaint bears the burden to prove the violations he\/she is claiming. You failed to provide your witness list and evidence despite numerous reminders and extensions of deadlines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Watson also stated that Mu\u00f1a displayed insubordination on multiple occasions, one of the instances being the disruption of last Friday\u2019s board meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, you disrupted an official board of directors meeting. This behavior constitutes not only direct insubordination, but violation of the chain of command and breach of company protocols,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mu\u00f1a is also accused of unauthorized representations and breach of protocols.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have engaged in unauthorized representation and communication on behalf of the corporation with our local and federal partners without proper authorization. [In addition] you claim to have submitted grant applications on behalf of the corporation, however, failed to follow company protocols,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Watson stated that CUC is investigating a complaint of harassment and hostile work environment filed against Mu\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

\u201cA formal complaint has been lodged against you regarding harassment and creating a hostile work environment. During this period of administrative leave, you are not authorized to perform any work-related duties, attend events, functions, meetings, and\/or training as an employee of CUC, or access company premises. This leave is not a disciplinary action but a precaution measure to ensure a thorough and unbiased investigation. You will continue to receive your regular salary and benefits during this period. We will notify you of any further actions of decisions following the conclusion of our investigation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Former CUC employee Candice Nicole L.G. Muna leads the newly established advocacy group Hands of the Community.<\/p>\n

-KIMBERLY B. ESMORES
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The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has placed on administrative leave an employee who openly accused CUC…<\/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-414475","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\/414475","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=414475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}