One of his opponents, Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio, earlier disclosed that federal officials will arrive here in September to assess Saipan’s power situation.
Atalig, who is Saipan Municipal Council member and president of the Northern Marianas Islands Councils Association, questioned the “timing” of Tenorio’s effort to help the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.
“Why only now?” Atalig asked.
Instead of bringing experts to assess the power problem, Atalig said Tenorio should “aggressively seek” a waiver from the matching fund rule.
“What we need now is funding to buy new generators,” Atalig said.
Currently, the CNMI has to match dollar-for-dollar all capital improvement funds provided by the federal government.
Atalig said the CNMI is the only U.S. insular area required to comply with a 50-50 matching fund.
“I will ask my legal staff to prepare a legislative measure to amend the agreement on matching funds,” Atalig said. “That will be my first assignment.”
According to Atalig, removing the matching requirement will allow the CNMI to purchase new generators using its unmatched CIP funds.
