CUC has applied for loan from MPLT so it can make an initial payment to Aggreko International Project Ltd., which will provide power to Saipan for 52 weeks.
“We have to… go to [the] central government again and ask for money,” Muna stated.
He noted that there is no point in identifying other funding sources.
“If we’ll get another loan from another institution, the Legislature may have issues with that as well,” he added.
According to Muna, the Legislature has to “accept the current [loan] proposal as the remedy” to the island’s power crisis.
He said MPLT is “very satisfied” with its loan agreement with CUC.
Earlier, Muna told the Variety that a 7 percent interest rate was attached to its $4.5 million loan from MPLT.
The loan is payable in 36 months.
According to the CUC-Aggreko contract, the utilities agency has to make pay over $1.5 million before the company provides Saipan with temporary power.
“All the Legislature has to do is approve it,’ Muna said, adding that CUC is prepared to settle its financial obligations with MPLT through the utilities agency’s local revenue collection.
CUC’s revenue from Oct. 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008 amounted to $7.6 million.
The chairman of the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications, Rep. Victor B. Hocog, earlier said he was opposed to CUC’s plan to use $2.7 million of the $4.5 million MPLT loan to pay for the agency’s next fuel order.
Hocog, Ind.-Rota, said the administration also failed to consider energy proposals from other companies.
The Aggreko proposal, the lawmaker said, should have gone through the bidding process.
