In its Oct. 16 letter, the EPA told CUC that its failure to comply with two federal stipulated orders concerning environmental violations was troubling and would cost the CNMI cash-strapped government about $634,000 in penalties.
Sablan, Ind.-Saipan, said she does not “understand how a warning letter regarding stipulated order violations and accrued penalties of over $630,000 would not warrant an immediate response.”
She told the Variety that CUC Executive Director Antonio Muna “did indicate that he plans to respond” to the EPA.
“Mr. Muna is undoubtedly a determined and diligent individual. At the end of the day, however, he is not a utility manager by profession but a political appointee who answers primarily to the governor under a continuing state of disaster emergency, which has been in place for nearly the entire four years that Governor Fitial has been in power. Decisions to delay proper accounting, adequate budgeting, sufficient professional staffing, and rate structures to achieve full cost recovery, violate not only federal stipulated orders but also local stipulated orders issued by the Public Utilities Commission. Such decisions are unduly and inexcusably influenced by political pressures from the very top, and gravely endanger public health,” said Sablan, who chairs the Saipan delegation’s public utilities committee.
She said the letter from EPA “affords much insight with respect to CUC’s approach to compliance with the stipulated orders.”
In some cases, she added, “the violations and associated penalties could have been avoided if Mr. Muna had simply given official titles to the highly qualified individuals already on-board and who are already filling the responsibilities of those positions without holding the actual titles. Violations could have also been avoided if certain reports had been submitted timely and complete, and if deficiencies identified by the EPA in those reports had been corrected promptly.”
According to Sablan, one major problem area identified by the EPA is CUC’s financial management.
She said deficiencies include the lack of accounting protocols to properly track billings and collections for the water, wastewater, and power divisions.
“Mr. Muna’s resistance to establishing separate accounts for the three divisions has been well-known and well-documented, but never well-explained,” Sablan added.
“Further, like the EPA, I do not understand the delay in advertising for and hiring a chief financial officer. During legislative briefings held a couple of months ago, Mr. Muna had indicated that he had taken on many of the CFO responsibilities in the interim and also would be retaining the services of Deloitte & Touche. However, as the EPA has made absolutely clear, nothing less than a full-time qualified chief financial officer at CUC is acceptable.”
Sablan noted that the goal of the federal stipulated orders is to protect public health, and to provide the people of the CNMI with clean water, a functional wastewater system, as well as an acceptable system of managing used oil that does not threaten groundwater resources.
“Partial compliance with these stipulated orders is not enough,” she said. “The hardworking and capable individuals who can assist CUC in achieving full compliance must be fully empowered by the executive director to do so.”
