GOVERNOR Arnold I. Palacios is set to meet early this week with the officials of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. to discuss CHCC’s unpaid utility bills.
The governor is expected to be back on island today, Monday, after attending the 2023 SelectUSA Investment Summit in National Harbor, Maryland.
CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna said they have yet to come into a specific agreement regarding the hospital’s $53.6 million in utility bills although CUC Board Chairwoman Janice A. Tenorio on Thursday evening said there was a “breakthrough” in the negotiations, and CUC had decided not to disconnect CHCC’s power and water supplies.
Muna said they are supposed to meet with the governor today, Monday, “and we will see the terms then.”
In an interview on Friday, Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang said he was very grateful to CHCC and CUC for “coming to an understanding.”
The power and water services of CHCC were scheduled to be disconnected on Thursday, May 4 based on the disconnection notice issued by then-acting CUC Executive Director Dallas M. Peavey Jr.
Apatang said CHCC, which operates the CNMI’s lone hospital, faced a “very crucial situation” on Thursday, but “I think we managed to come up with an agreement just to hold off [the disconnection] until Tuesday [this week].”
“I asked them to please consider that, and when the governor gets back, we can sit down again,” Apatang said.
He also wants lawmakers to join them in the meeting “so we can look at the situation.”
Apatang reiterated that “the major concern here is the patients in the hospital, especially those in the intensive care unit and the hemo-dialysis center.”
“Just imagine cutting off the power. These are the things that we need to be mindful of,” he added.
Apatang noted that CUC also did not disconnect the Department of Public Works’ power supply because there are amounts in its utility bills that the department is challenging.
CUC, which earlier said that DPW owed $1.12 million as of March 31, has agreed to “reconcile the numbers,” Apatang added.
CUC, for its part, said it is mandated by the federal government to collect arrears.
The CNMI government is CUC’s largest delinquent customer with an unpaid total utility bill of $66.37 million as of March 31, 2023.
Of that amount, the central government owed $8.9 million.
In the governor’s fiscal year 2023 budget submission, he said he was allotting $1.8 million “as an assurance of the government’s commitment to pay for its utilities consumption.”
Arnold I. Palacios
