The new contract will expire in 2020.
“One of the provisions of the contract is for Telesource to come up with alternative energy proposal,” Mendiola, Covenant-Tinian, said. “To date, we haven’t seen any alternative energy coming from Telesource.”
The lawmaker also questions the power supplier’s employment system. He said most of its employees are non-Tinian residents.
They’re “95 percent or 98 percent outsiders,” he said, referring to the company’s workforce.
“What about our local labor force? Where’s the local opportunity for our people? What if the power plant on Tinian encounters some problems and only foreign workers can fix them?” he asked.
Telesource workers, he said, are from Bangladesh, the Philippines and the states.
“We have a power plant but the only people who can fix the power plant are foreign contract workers,” Mendiola added.
The power supplier has no local qualified plant mechanic, lineman or technician, the senator said.
He said a legal counsel is now looking into the CUC-Telesource contract.
“I’m not sure what’s the justification [for the renewal of the contract], nor do I see any need for it unless CUC comes back to the table and explain to the people of the CNMI [its reason for extending the contract date],” the senator said.
Earlier, Telesource announced that CUC was in “breach” of its contract following the agency’s failure to settle its financial obligations amounting to over $800,000.
