THE Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has so far spent $74,770,165 in fiscal year 2022, according to its unaudited third quarterly expenditure report, which CUC Executive Director Gary P. Camacho submitted to the Legislature.
An autonomous public corporation, CUC is also required by the budget law to submit a quarterly expenditure report to the presiding officers of the Legislature.
Camacho told Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez and Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider that he was submitting a report for the period that ended on June 30, 2022, pursuant to the budget law.
Although there was a slight decrease in CUC expenditures between the first and second quarters, the report indicates a significant increase in expenses in the third quarter of FY2022. CUC’s total expenditures in the first quarter was $23.6 million. In the second quarter, it went down to $20.2 million and in the third quarter, CUC spent $30.8 million.
Of CUC’s total expenses of $74.7 million by the end of the third quarter, the biggest chunk was operating expenditure, totaling $59.7 million, of which $14 million went to personnel, including $497,766 in overtime pay.
Out of the $59.7 million operating cost, CUC spent $46.4 million on power plant operation which includes fuel and lube oil.
During a meeting with the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation’s Judiciary and Governmental Operations last week, CUC Chief Financial Officer Greg Cruz told lawmakers that the corporation’s “total revenue less operating cost would really tell you the true story whether or not we are really making any money.”
When asked by the delegation’s JGO committee chair, Sen. Edith Deleon Guerrero, “if CUC generates excess revenue,” Cruz answered, “if CUC generates an excess in revenue, it would be largely attributable to the grants we receive primarily from the federal government.”
“Other than that, there is really nothing [that is] driving any excess in income,” Cruz added.
He said lawmakers should consider looking at CUC’s operating cost.
“A lot of [our] income…was not generated from what we bill our customers. It came mostly from outside sources,” he said, referring to federal grants and local appropriation for certain capital improvement projects.
