In his approval letter to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial earlier this month, OIA Director Nikolao I. Pula detailed the $3.8 million CIP funds which the administration has requested to be reprogrammed to power plant repair.
The reprogrammed funds are originally earmarked for the two sewer projects in Rota and one in Kagman.
Pula told Fitial that he supports his efforts of overhauling the existing engines in the power plant before the contract with Aggreko expires 10 month from now.
The Aggreko has put up temporary units to supply Saipan with power while the CNMI
government works to rehabilitate the power plant.
Federal CIP coordinator, Keith Aughenbaugh in an interview yesterday, said he is unaware if the residents and precinct leaders in the areas that will be affected by the reprogramming of funds were informed of the administration’s action.
He said Fitial is the expenditure authority on this matter, so “he has the final say.”
The funds CIP funds reprogrammed to repair the power plant are the $1.6 million for the Rota Wastewater projects allotted for FY 2005; the $559,455 allotted for the same project for FY 2007 and $1.7 million for Kagman Wastewater project allowed for FY 2008.
Aughenbaugh said these funds remained untouched because none of the said projects were started.
Rep. Edward Salas, R-Saipan who is among the two lawmakers from Precinct 5, which includes Kagman, said in a separate interview that he learned over the weekend about the OIA’s approval of Fitial’s request to reprogram the fund but he is not aware where the money is coming from.
Variety learned from some members of Kagman Community that there is no wastewater treatment facility in the village.
Some of them have to spend their own money to hire private firms in pumping out the contents of their septic tanks.
Kagman has over 1,000 residents. In the absence of wastewater treatment plant, each household was required to have a leeching field to receive wastewater from their septic tanks.
Not one of the residents interviewed could tell in what extent at this time how the ground water is affected by these practices.
In his request earlier this year, Fitial told Pula that the CUC’s inability to fund major repairs of the power plant has prompted the government to request for additional funding.
If the power plant is fully rehabilitated within the next 10 months, the governor projected it will produce a maximum of 26 megawatts to replace the Aggreko units upon the expiration of contract.
Pula told the governor that “none of the reprogrammed funds can be expended until OIA has received and approved a scope of work for the activities to be undertaken and ensured that all federal environmental laws and regulations are complied with.
The OIA, he said will work closely with the CUC and CIP office to detail that accounting of how the funds previously awarded by OIA for power rehabilitation have been expended.
