Austerity measures were blamed yesterday for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s poor maintenance program, which has resulted in recent power outages.<\/p>\n
The CUC power division reported yesterday that outages experienced at Feeder 2 and Feeder 4 areas since last week are caused by a combination of power distribution and generation problems, which in turn result from deteriorating equipment.<\/p>\n
Power division manager Diego Babauta admitted that most of the problems were old. They, however, are recurring now mainly because the power division has not been able to follow its maintenance schedule due to cost-cutting.<\/p>\n
Babauta noted that maintenance requires people to work overtime, but CUC\u2019s standing policy reserves overtime work for emergency situations only.<\/p>\n
The no non-emergency overtime rule was part of the June 24, 2004 memorandum issued by CUC executive director Lorraine A. Babauta directing all CUC managers \u201cto immediately implement cost-cutting measures and tight expenditure controls.\u201d<\/p>\n
CUC board members, however, stressed during a special meeting yesterday that maintenance personnel should be allowed to work overtime to put necessary preventive measures in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people are needed, then they should go out there. We should not wait for an emergency before we let our people work,\u201d said board member Joe Torres.<\/p>\n
His colleague Allen Perez agreed. \u201cDon\u2019t worry about the cost. Let\u2019s just figure out a picture-perfect situation. Let [the board] worry about the funding,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n
For his part, CUC vice chair Herman P. Sablan tasked the management to provide recommendations on how the power outages can be eliminated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do we [the board] have to brain-storm all this? We need solutions; you have to come up with recommendations we can look at,\u201d Sablan told the management.<\/p>\n
Unscheduled power outages were experienced at Feeder 2 and Feeder 4 areas over the past week.<\/p>\n
Areas covered by Feeder 2 include Garapan, Beach Road to the San Jose traffic light, Puerto Rico, and Chalan Laulau down to Quartermaster Road.<\/p>\n
Feeder 4 areas include Sadog Tasi, Capitol Hill, Wireless Ridge, Denni, Agag, As Teo, Kagman, and portions of Papago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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