SENATOR Paul A. Manglona who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications, last week pre-filed Senate Bill 23-29 which proposes to split the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. into two independent autonomous public corporations that will separately manage and control the CNMI’s power and water/wastewater services.
The bill would create the Commonwealth Power Service Authority to manage and control the CNMI’s electrical power generation, distribution, billing and all power service operations; and the Commonwealth Waterworks Service Authority to manage and control the water and wastewater system, billing and all water and wastewater service operations.
S.B. 23-29 would also create the Commonwealth Consolidated Utilities Board whose elected members will oversee CPSA and CWSA. The board will have five members — one from Rota, one from Tinian and three from Saipan.
The board would appoint qualified general managers and chief financial officers of CPSA and CWSA.
S.B. 23-29 states that CUC has grown tremendously over the last two decades both in terms off customer base and the number of employees. It is time, the bill stated, “to consider reorganizing the corporation by separating the power and water systems so that they are separately managed and controlled by two autonomous corporations.”
The bill likewise acknowledges that “publicly elected board members are the choice of the community. If the board fails to perform its duties and responsibilities properly, the voters choose someone else they trust.”
CUC board members are currently appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate.
Sen. Paul A. Manglona speaks during a committee meeting in the Senate chamber in January.
