Commonwealth Ports Authority Board Chair Jose C. Ayuyu, third left, speaks as CPA Executive Director Leo B. Tudela, second left, back to the camera, and Board Vice Chairman Antonio Cabrera, second right, listen during a board meeting in the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting classroom at the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport on Friday.
COMMONWEALTH Ports Authority Board Chair Jose C. Ayuyu on Friday shared with his fellow board members and other CPA officials his thoughts about the financial report submitted by board member Dolores Kiyoshi.
“We’re spending more than we are making,” he said.
“For the overall [cashflow], we are okay or safe, but it does not mean that we have to relax,” he said, adding that CPA should exercise caution in its spending and explore opportunities to increase revenue.
“We continue to struggle in balancing our revenues and expenditures,” he said. “We are still in the negative on those two categories…. Cashflow-wise, we are okay, but my preference is that whatever generated revenue [must] match…the expenditures because we can’t continue to be on the negative side. We just need to be very careful whenever we do spending,” Ayuyu added.
In her report, Kiyoshi, chair of the board’s financial affairs committee, said CPA’s airport revenue is “right there in the borderline [but] we’re not on a negative.”
She said her committee met last week to discuss how to save money, and hopefully, in the next board meeting, they will be able to present a cost-cutting proposal along with recommendations for financial resources that can be allocated to savings.
She said the seaports bring a lot of revenue, which is “a plus on us.” However, she reminded everyone that seaport revenues stay with the seaports and airport revenues stay with the airports.
For his part, CPA Executive Director Leo B. Tudela said last week, CPA collected $200,000 in seaport fees on Tinian. He attributed this fresh revenue to the military construction activities on the island.
Kiyoshi said the Black Micro construction company also contributes significantly to Tinian seaport revenue as it continues to bring in vessels to the island.
Ayuyu noted that “Tinian is booming a little bit, and hopefully the Tinian port will make a little bit more money so that we can meet our shortfall.”
“I am very happy that the military is spending money on Tinian because if [Donald] Trump comes in, this guy is very tight on money. Maybe. So we will have to look after ourselves,” Ayuyu said.
