“No One Is Above the Law—Except the Government”:Ratepayers Accuse CNMI Officials of Letting Agencies Dodge CUC Bills While Forcing Austerity and Higher Rates on the People
Updated: 1 hour ago
The Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission will decide on the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s petition for a three-year base rate increase on November 20.
Hearings opened Monday on Saipan, continued Tuesday on Tinian, and moved to Rota on Wednesday.
A special meeting Thursday takes up both the rate case and CUC’s proposed long-term solar power purchase agreement with Eastern Power Solutions. Ratepayers, residents, and elected officials have spoken with one voice against shifting any more of the burden onto households already living under austerity.
CUC seeks successive increases to electric, water, and wastewater base rates plus a temporary typhoon restoration surcharge.
The first adjustments would take effect December 1, with further increases in 2027 and 2028. The monthly electric customer charge would rise from $7 to $8.75, then $14, then $15.68. The rate for the first 350 kilowatt-hours would move from 2.1 cents to 2.63 cents, then 4.20 cents, then 4.70 cents.
A typhoon surcharge would collect up to $20 million over 12 months.
Residents reject the premise that these increases are the only path forward.
For more than a decade, executives, managers, and consultants were paid with public funds to maintain the sole-source utility and to collect operational costs from every customer.
They did not.
Government agencies accumulated tens of millions in unpaid bills while ordinary families faced rising fuel charges, estimated bills, and the threat of disconnection. No one is above the law CUC is mandated to enforce.
The people of Tinian and Saipan are now demanding that the law finally be applied—starting with the government agencies that have been allowed to dodge payment while households absorb the shortfall.
Austerity for the People, Nonpayment for the Agencies
The CNMI government has reduced executive-branch work hours to 26.5 per week. Those cuts slash household income, weaken local businesses, and force families already living near the edge to stretch every dollar.
Tourism remains depressed, with fiscal year 2026 arrivals projected near 104,511. The Commonwealth continues to lose roughly 1,000 residents a year. In this environment, every extra dollar on a utility bill is not an inconvenience—it is a threat to remaining on-island.
At the October 20 Tinian hearing, Rep. Vincent R. Aldan placed the numbers on the record from a November 30, 2025 CUC accounts receivable aging report:
central government $1.5 million,
hospital $30 million,
Commonwealth Ports Authority $2.6 million,
other agencies $1.3 million—
CNMI government total approximately $36.4 million.
Residential arrears stood at $11.7 million and commercial at $10.6 million.
The combined figure approached $58.8 million.
When Aldan entered the 23rd Legislature in 2022, arrears already exceeded $75 million. “Guess who was paying that seventy-five million dollars? All of you.” He noted that government collects taxes—roughly 30 cents on every dollar—and is supposed to use those funds to pay for the services its agencies consume.
Instead, the agencies do not pay, and the burden is shifted back onto the same taxpayers through rate increases and fuel charges. “So now we’re paying double, quadruple.” With furloughs already in effect and a recent 25 percent reduction still felt, he asked the obvious question: “Can you guys afford it?”
Voices That Will Not Be Softened
Winifred, a widower living solely on Social Security, told the rate consultants that raising rates will not solve the problem when people have no money to pay.
“As an economist, you really fail. Because you raise the bill, who’s gonna be able to afford to pay it? Where, how are you gonna get the money if there’s no money?”
She asked why CUC waited so long for the government to pay, then transferred the cost to residents who already pay. “Nobody here can afford this one. The ones that are paying you, they cannot afford it.” She said those responsible should go to jail.
Carmen Farrell described bills that bore no relation to actual usage.
For one period, service charges showed roughly $244 while an additional $844 in fuel charges pushed the total over $1,000.
She had paid $972 shortly after Typhoon Sinlaku when power was off.
“You’re saying that you’re only increasing ten, fifteen percent, when this is over four thousand percent.”
She demanded to know where typhoon subsidies went and insisted that CUC collect what is owed:
“How you guys gonna become alive and become an independent and working company if you don’t go and collect?”
On the disparity between low usage and high fuel charges she called it “… That is a sin.”
She asked whether government offices running air conditioning at 62 degrees would be forced to reduce consumption the way residential customers already must.
Peter Palacios pointed to reduced work hours and pay and to uncollected amounts larger than the reported $24 million loss.
“If you don’t do your job, then this is what happens. Somebody’s not doing the job.”
Richard Farrell asked whether the loss represented fuel, theft, or deferred maintenance, described rotted poles still standing on Tinian, and noted households lighting rooms with candles because $800–$1,000 bills made normal use impossible.
Frederick de la Cruz recalled that non-revenue water was 64 percent when a stipulated order was imposed years earlier and that the same figure persists despite more than $200 million in federal awards.
He and others called for a full forensic utility audit by an independent mainland firm with no local ties—not another financial audit that leaves contracts, fuel purchasing, receivables, and billing practices unexamined.
Fiscal Conservatism Demands the Same Standard for Government as for Ratepayers
The people’s demands align with the fiscal conservatism that rejects open-ended subsidies for nonperformance and insists that public funds be used for their intended purpose. Federal single audits of the CNMI have already identified approximately $257 million in questioned costs, including roughly $165.5 million tied to ARPA and CARES Act spending, and have called for the return of $11 million in CARES funds.
Later reviews flagged additional tens of millions.
These findings are not proof of theft; they are proof that required records and controls were not maintained.
Residents ask the same question about CUC: if executives, managers, and consultants were paid throughout the years of rising arrears and deferred maintenance, why was the mandate to collect from every customer and to maintain the system not enforced?
President Trump’s emphasis on ending waste, recovering improper payments, and requiring accountability for federal dollars supports the call for independent audits of both the CNMI’s use of relief funds and CUC’s management of the utility it was paid to operate.
No agency or official is above the collection law.
Ratepayers should not be the residual source of funding for government nonpayment.
CNMIGA.ORG and residents call for the U.S. Department of Energy and the Government Accountability Office to examine CUC’s generation costs, fuel procurement, receivables, and compliance with federal award conditions.
They call on the Department of the Interior, the House Committee on Natural Resources, and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to investigate every federal grant, loan, and other form of support provided to CUC over the last 20 years and to publish a clear accounting of what the money was used for.
Where typhoon and relief funds were provided, residents want to know why permanent generation capacity was not secured and why leased units and continued diesel dependence remain the default.
Fiscal conservatism does not mean protecting institutions from scrutiny; it means protecting the people who ultimately pay from institutions that fail to perform the duties for which they were funded.
The Solar Proposal and the Same Demand for Clear Accountability
The CPUC is also reviewing a proposed 25-year power purchase agreement valued at roughly $500 million with Eastern Power Solutions for utility-scale solar and battery storage on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. Eastern has set an October 31 deadline, citing the need to meet a December 31, 2027 federal investment tax credit placement-in-service date.
The financing structure relies on private construction debt and equity, later refinancing through USDA Rural Utilities Service, and tax-equity investors holding 99 percent ownership for approximately five years. Draft contracts name Naftan Solar LLC (a special-purpose vehicle under NESS Inc.) as the contracting party while Eastern is the entity with construction experience. CPUC counsel has stated he does not yet know which entity carries liability.
Daniel Myung is CEO of Eastern Power Solutions and NESS and principal of related American Samoa entities including Mana Solar LLC and Banana Solar LLC.
In American Samoa, Eastern and those entities advanced a roughly 20 MW solar-plus-storage project at Pavaiai announced as an approximately $50 million investment, received $35.5 million in USDA PACE funding under the Inflation Reduction Act ($12 million to Banana Solar for 6.6 MW and $23.5 million to Mana Solar for 13.4 MW), and obtained a $5 million SSBCI-supported construction loan.
An airport solar partnership of up to 25 MW solar plus 20 MW / 80 MWh battery storage is also advancing with Eastern providing full financing.
ASPA confirmed the related LLCs operate under Eastern as the independent power producer. No public fraud findings appear against these entities. What is documented is layered special-purpose vehicles, heavy dependence on federal tax credits and USDA financing, and local questions about which company is the independent power producer versus the construction firm.
In the CNMI, Gary Sword attended a CUC pre-proposal conference on behalf of Eastern; his wife, then a CUC board member, voted to affirm the disqualification of a competing bidder.
No reporting links Sword to the American Samoa projects.
Residents do not oppose renewable energy that can genuinely reduce diesel costs.
They oppose locking the Commonwealth into a 25-year agreement while the utility that would buy the power has failed for more than a decade to collect from every customer and to maintain the system it was paid to operate.
Fiscal conservatism requires clear, enforceable liability, independent verification of the financing and ownership structure, and the same level of scrutiny applied to CUC’s own books. Other bidders reportedly offered rates in the mid-20-cent range; Eastern’s proposed fixed rate is 18.5 cents per kWh.
The rate is only attractive if the project is delivered as described and ratepayers have real recourse.
The People’s Demand
House Bill 24-99, introduced by Rep. Aldan, would allow a judge or jury to infer intent to steal utility service under defined conditions of meter tampering, unauthorized reconnection, or diversion devices. Residents support tools against theft.
They insist the same law must apply to government agencies and large accounts that have accumulated tens of millions in arrears.
No one is above the law.
The people of Tinian and Saipan demand immediate aggressive collection—including litigation—from every government agency that owes money; a complete public debt ledger; an independent mainland forensic utility audit of receivables, billing, fuel recovery, meters, non-revenue water, contracts, and federal fund use; DOE, GAO, Interior, and congressional investigations of the last 20 years of federal support; and clear liability terms in any solar agreement.
Families living on reduced hours, Social Security, or less than $30,000 a year, lighting homes with candles while facing $800–$1,000 bills, should not be forced to underwrite government nonpayment.
Fiscal conservatism and basic fairness require that the officials and agencies that were paid to enforce the law finally do so.
The CPUC’s November 20 decision and any federal response that follows will show whether that standard is applied—or whether the burden continues to fall only on the people who already paid
About the Author
Zaji “Persona Non Grata” Zajradhara is a staunch advocate for American workers and indigenous rights in the CNMI.
Labeled a “persona non grata” by the CNMI government for his relentless pursuit of justice and his outspoken criticism of corruption and foreign influence, Zajradhara has become a symbol of resistance against the forces seeking to undermine American sovereignty in the islands.
As an unemployed Afro-American resident and father, Zajradhara's firsthand experience with the CNMI’s dysfunctional labor market, its rigged political system, and the exploitation of vulnerable communities has fueled his activism. He has filed numerous legal claims against companies, including Tan Holdings, for violating labor laws and discriminating against American workers.
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