This is the proposal that Vice Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro, Covenant-Saipan, will introduce in the next session.
Pre-filed last Tuesday, House Bill 17-101 seeks to repeal Public Law 16-17 or the CUC Private Sector Partnership Act.
The law allows and encourages CUC to partner with the private sector “to secure reliable utility services at affordable rates.”
Ogumoro, however, said no investor has shown interest to operate CUC since the law was enacted in 2008.
She believes it is in the best interest of the people of the CNMI to hold onto CUC and allow the indigenous people, 18 years old and above, to own and manage it.
Her bill will create a Northern Marianas Utilities Corp., or NMUC, whose shareholders will be the local people.
The public corporation, the bill proposes, will be organized by the mayors of Rota, Tinian, Saipan and the Northern Islands, and the heads of the Carolinian Affairs and Indigenous Affairs offices.
These officials will serve as interim officers and directors until the corporation issues shares and the shareholders elect the officers.
Once organized, the public corporation will issue up to $1,000 “par value per share” of stock to NMDs who want to own a piece of NMUC.
“No one shall own more than one share of common stock and more than 10,000 shares of preferred stocks,” the bill stated.
According to Ogumoro, instead of allowing them to take over government corporations like CUC, private investors should be encouraged to engage only in business opportunities related to tourism, shopping malls, banking, free trade, air and sea transportation and sea port development.
