By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

THE Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s power privatization project will have to wait for a decision by the Office of the Public Auditor on an appeal filed by Telesource CNMI Inc. on the rejection of its protest against CUC’s issuance of a request for proposal and the “unreasonable and unlawful” prequalification fee of $25,000, among other things, it was learned yesterday.
Public Auditor Mike Sablan said a legal opinion by the Attorney General’s Office stated that OPA has jurisdiction over CUC procurement amid last year’s reorganization of the utility, clearing the way for OPA to adjudicate the appeal filed by Telesource with OPA on March 30.
Executive Order 2006-4, issued by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial on May 5, 2006, reorganized CUC and states in part that CUC shall comply with the procurement regulations of the CNMI or such other procurement rules as may be issued.
Sablan said the administration’s committee working on the CUC power business privatization plan has asked OPA whether it could prioritize hearing the Telesource appeal “so as not to delay the project unnecessarily.”
“This is a top priority for OPA…We received a legal opinion from AGO confirming OPA’s authority to hear the appeal filed by Telesource. Having received that, OPA will now commence adjudication of the appeal,” Sablan said.
Currently, the power privatization committee — comprised of CUC executive director Anthony C. Guerrero, Finance Secretary Eloy Inos, special assistant for management and budget Tony Muna, Commonwealth Ports Authority chair Rex Palacios, and Water Task Force program director Pete Sasamoto — is still evaluating the pre-qualification proposals submitted by four companies which CUC has not identified yet.
But before the April 2 deadline for submission of proposals, on Feb. 22, Telesource filed a formal protest against CUC’s issuance of an RFP for the multi-million privatization of Saipan’s power operations.
Telesource counsel Robert J. O’Connor said CUC and the Division of Procurement and Supply ignored their protest. He said the two agencies’ inaction more than 30 days after the filing of the protest is “inexcusable.”
“In fact, CUC is proceeding, contrary to procurement regulations, as if no protest had been filed,” said O’Connor.
Telesource said the company has already been certified by CUC — in its previous RFP attempts at privatization — as a qualified offeror.
“Now CUC is requiring Telesource and other offerors to pay a fee of $25,000 just for CUC to determine whether or not the offeror is qualified to pay an additional $50,000 to obtain a privatization RFP package,” said O’Connor, adding that these fees “bear no logical relationship to the cost of work to be done or the services to be rendered in return by CUC or its representatives.”
Telesource then filed an appeal with OPA.
Sablan earlier asked the AGO’s legal opinion whether OPA has the authoritity to entertain an appeal related to the RFP or if CUC has been granted procurement authority other than that set forth in Executive Order No. 2006-4 and the CNMI Procurement Regulations.