MUCH have to be said about the critical comments made by the president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce regarding H.B. 15-237. Similar sentiments have also been echoed by the Senate president.
The SCC president openly and publicly criticized a bill which purports to lower the pre-qualification requirement of the PUC law (P.L. 15-40) which allows potential bidders wishing to participate in the privatization efforts of CUC to be automatically pre-qualified provided that they have at least 10 years of doing business in the commonwealth and 10 years experience in the related utility services.
The legislation is nothing more than an amendment to lower the requirement of 10 years experience in the related utility services to that of eight years. What is so wrong about this amendment?
If I understand the intent of this bill correctly, it was introduced for local qualified companies that have been established here in the commonwealth for over 10 years who are in good standing and are engaged in various businesses activities with vast and extensive general business experiences, plus a minimum of eight years experience in the power sector business.
It’s not saying remove the power sector experience altogether and just be pre-qualified. It’s just saying give some opportunity to our local companies which have at least eight years experience in the power sector business on island a chance to participate and compete with outside companies who are considerably larger in size and wealthier compared to our local companies, but definitely not better.
The most important question we should be asking about outside companies is: do they have any business track record on island? Have they invested or contributed to the growth of our island?
I believe outside companies should be the ones to go to the process of submitting all required documents relative to their financial, technical capabilities and experiences so that we can learn who they are or where they are from before we allow them to be pre-qualified.
We really don’t need to compel our local companies to be pre-qualified since they have been on island for many years and are operators of power plants in the commonwealth and in the region.
Let’s not forget that we have our own industry players in the region who are also contributing members of our community. We already know who the local companies are.
So, what’s the big fuss about this bill with the SCC president or the Senate president for that matter? Which part of this particular bill confuses or puzzles them?
Let’s ask ourselves the question: Is it asking too much of our elected leaders to ensure that our local companies be given a minimal preference just to be automatically pre-qualified to enter and participate in the bid process?
And is it too much to ask the SCC president and the Senate president to read and understand the intent of the bill that speaks about pre-qualification issues only and not the actual bid itself?
Further, is it too much to ask the SCC president to support local companies in their quest to be able to participate in a major project such as this in an island environment where projects are scarce?
I want to remind the SCC president that even in our statutes we have a preference law which gives local companies a competitive edge over outside companies. Why not allow similar concession in this tender for local companies?
I don’t appreciate the SCC president and Senate president shooting-off their mouth in public about issues they don’t really understand, so let’s educate them a bit.
First of all, let’s not forget the motive behind the grand designers (Filipino consultants) hired by CUC and tasked to prepare this RFP.
They intentionally blew the scope out of proportion to ensure that the cost would be astronomical and thereby eliminating all local companies from participating altogether. CUC’s problem, as we all understood it to be, was merely about generation and fuel cost issues.
They have expanded the whole privatization effort to astronomical levels; not only are we talking about generation, but to include: transmission, distribution, metering and billing.
The credentials, credibility and capability of the Filipino consultants hired by CUC are, up until this point, still very questionable.
We gracefully paid the Filipino consultants hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell us how to fix our power problems when, in fact, they have bigger power problems in the Philippines.
My God, we dispensed ourselves of having world-class quality and reputable consulting companies like the Harris Group and Economist.com so that we can engage consultants from the Philippines (a Third World country) to consult us as to how best to rid ourselves of our power woes.
This action is pathetic and it’s a crying shame!
On a different bill altogether, I dare to challenge the SCC president to openly and publicly criticize the action of Senate President Joseph Mendiola for introducing a preposterous bill S.B. 15-87, which seeks to amend certain provisions of the Professional Licensing Board to allow foreigners to enter the commonwealth and to perform engineering, architectural and/or, for that matter, surveying services.
We have U.S. certified engineers, architects and surveyors on island who are struggling to find work and are vigorously going after projects just to sustain their businesses and their professions.
Yet, the Senate president, in his odd sense of wisdom, wants to bring a whole lot of foreigners into the commonwealth to compete with our very own local companies in an already strained business environment.
Now, the question is: why is the SCC president, who is supposed to protect the interest of local businesses, taking a “hush-hush” approach and remains very silent about the introduction and intent of S.B. 15-87?
Well, your guess is as good as mine! Like the saying goes: “Birds of the same feather flock together.”
Lastly, I want to thank the editor for allowing the printing of this letter to share my views and concerns to the reading public.
It’s quite obvious that both our highly esteemed and almighty presidents of SCC and the Senate are showing us their similar double standard mentality.

JOE R. CAMACHO
Kagman, Saipan