“It means that sole-sourcing — awarding contracts without bidding — will continue,” he said in an interview.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, in an executive order issued on Thursday, said the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s failure to offer reliable power service still poses a risk to the people’s health and safety.
His order suspends safety, environmental and other regulations that apply to the installation of Aggreko’s generators which CUC will rent for a year for $6 million.
Palacios, R-Saipan, said the governor must provide a report to the Legislature regarding CUC’s condition and the measures implemented by the administration to improve the island’s power crisis.
“What happened to all those consultancy contracts they’ve signed?” he asked. “I hope this extended period of emergency will not be used for sole-sourcing contracts again.”
According to Palacios, the administration earlier said that Saipan’s power situation would be stabilized by Sept. 16.
“The U.S. Navy is also sending a team to assess CUC and a bill privatizing CUC is with the governor already, but then he signs another E.O.,” the speaker said.
Palacios said when the previous administration left office, “there was enough power for the island. There was also a study made by the Harris Group on the privatization of the power generation. But the first thing the new administration did was to hire another consultant and announce a [request for proposals] that had to be cancelled because [the Office of the Public Auditor] said it was defective. Meantime, they neglected the engines at the power plants. And so here we are now.”
Palacios said he’s “not sure” if the governor will sign H.B. 16-77, or the CUC privatization bill.
“There are many things he doesn’t like about the bill,” he said without elaborating.
The administration has until Sept. 15 to act on the measure.
