“I am not encouraged to allow for a tour [whose goal is] to find fault and not progress,” CUC Executive Director Tony Muna said in an e-mail to Cruz.
Muna is also displeased with Cruz’s statement regarding CUC’s “special interest contracted crews, mechanics, and consultant from Fiji or American Samoa.”
According to Muna, “I do not discriminate as to race, creed, or color when it comes to CUC employees. Qualification is the number one criteria for employment at CUC.”
CUC employees at the plant, he added, “have done a great job in overhauling the engines, under extreme conditions, and long hours. I am concerned that your presence at the plant with the intent to find fault will only undermine overhaul efforts and employee morale.”
If Cruz feels “that we are not doing our jobs or have knowledge misusing public funds then your venue is [the Office of the Public Auditor], Legislature, etc.,” Muna said.
He added, “Please revisit your intentions as stated regarding [the] requested tour of the plant and resubmit and I will reconsider.”
Cruz, in his reply to Muna, said if CUC seeks financial assistance and support from the community “we must see for ourselves what is truly happening within our power plants. How do you expect…the community [and] the consumers to continue believing and trusting this administration’s efforts toward a stable power supply [while raising] power rates?”
He told Muna that the scheduled removal in September of Aggreko’s back-up generators “will be a detriment to the general well-being of all residential and business establishments in our homeland if CUC is not prepared….”
The CNMI government is paying Aggreko over $500,000 a month for the use of its generators while CUC repairs and overhauls its power plant engines.
The contract, which amounts to $6 million, ends on Sept. 12.
Cruz asked Muna to “assign a person who is well-versed, and knowledgeable such as Mr. Waylon Young, to walk us through so that we can fully understand what our public utilities need.”
Young is CUC’s deputy director.
Cruz promised to “use the information obtained constructively, for we are all in the same boat Mr. Muna. We need to ask the community how they can assist and we need their full understanding and cooperation Mr. Muna.”
The administration has expressed confidence that CUC will generate enough power after Aggreko’s contract ends.
