Sen. Maria Frica Pangelinan, D-Saipan, who chairs the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee, said Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s budget request for the government’s water and power consumption this incoming FY 2010, which starts on Oct. 1, is up by $4 million.
“Public Law 16-32 authorized $8.9 million for utilities. In the FY 2010 governor’s proposal, the amount is $12.9 million, and it is mainly posted to business unit 1591,” she said.
A draft of the still unnumbered FY 2010 budget bill obtained by the Variety referred to business unit 1591 as simply “utilities-CNMI government.”
“Last year the amounts were separated out into the various business units. The question of whether or not this is based on actual costs from FY 2009 was answered in part by CUC which verified that the billings and payments in FY ‘09 have averaged approximately $1,000,000 per month,” Pangelinan said in her memorandum to the members of the committee.
“The wide scope of reprogramming authority comes into play with this amount being centralized and under the governor’s purview,” she added.
According to the draft budget bill, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is allowed to have 339 full-time-employees who should be paid over $10.974 million this FY 2010.
CUC is projected to spend about $128 million for its operations, which include payments for fuel and other necessities, to run its power plants, water wells and sewer facilities, including administrative costs.
In all, CUC projects to spend $139 million over the next 12 months.
CUC is supposed to be autonomous government agency but it has been under the executive branch since May of last year due to the critical power situation on Saipan.
Although power generators rented from the U.K-based Aggreko are on their way out of Saipan following the administration’s decision not to renew its $500,000 monthly rental contract with the firm, the declaration of a state of disaster emergency on the CNMI remains in effect to allow CUC to hire foreign workers for its power plants.
