By Rep. Vincent R. Aldan, Chairman, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
The official letter from CUC Executive Director Kevin O. Watson dated August 5, 2025, (see attached CUC letter) sent in response to a request for a “true copy” (by House Legislature T&I Committee Chairman) of all updated arrears of private and government entities, confirms what the public has every right to be alarmed about: CUC is carrying an enormous accounts receivable problem while at the same time pushing the idea of emergency borrowing.
According to CUC’s own enclosed Accounts Receivables Aging Summary with Disputed AR as of July 31, 2025, CUC’s grand total accounts receivable stands at $98,610,128.67. Of that amount, $77,445,854.98 comes from CNMI, CHCC, PSS, CPA, and other government agencies, while $21,164,273.69 comes from residential and commercial accounts.
Let that sink in.
CUC is telling the public there is an emergency serious enough to justify borrowing tens of millions of dollars, yet CUC’s own official records show nearly $98.6 million in outstanding receivables. Even worse, the overwhelming majority of that debt is not new. The same aging summary shows $92,610,630.40 sitting in the 120-plus days category. Government accounts alone show $74,383,630.56 in the 120-plus days column.
That is not a small bookkeeping issue. That is a massive collections crisis.
The most alarming figure in the entire summary is CHCC alone at $70,011,189.48. On top of that, the summary shows CNMI Central Government at $3,527,678.22, CPA at $2,583,985.34, and Other Government Agencies at $1,337,224.19. Meanwhile, residential accounts are listed at $11,231,656.87 and commercial accounts at $9,932,616.82.
So, the public is entitled to ask the obvious question:
How does CUC justify pushing for emergency borrowing or a line of credit when its own official records show nearly $100 million in unpaid accounts, most of it already more than 120 days old? Yes, receivables are not the same thing as cash in the bank. That much is true. But that does not excuse this situation. It makes it worse. Because if CUC has allowed receivables to grow to this level, especially from major government-related accounts, and now turns around asking for more borrowed money, then the public has every right to ask whether this is a true emergency or the result of failed collections, failed financial discipline, failed enforcement, or all three.
An emergency does not erase accountability.
Before any borrowing authority, line of credit, emergency loan, or customer-backed financing is even discussed, CUC should first be required to answer, in plain language and in public:
Who owes what?
What portion is actually collectible?
What collection actions have been taken?
Why are these balances still sitting in the 120-plus days bucket?
Why should ratepayers bear any new risk when CUC has not first shown aggressive recovery of the money already owed?
These are not unfair questions. These are the minimum questions that any responsible government, regulator, or ratepayer should demand before more debt is piled onto an already broken situation.
The numbers in CUC’s own official letter make one thing unmistakably clear: this is not merely a storm recovery issue. This is a collections failure and a governance failure on a scale too large to ignore.
The people of the Commonwealth should not be treated as the automatic backup plan every time management falls short. They should not be asked to quietly accept new borrowing, new financing costs, new fees, or new risk while nearly $98.6 million remains outstanding and more than $92.6 million is already over 120 days past due.
If CUC wants extraordinary financial authority, then CUC must first provide extraordinary transparency, extraordinary collections enforcement, and extraordinary accountability.
Anything less is not a solution. It is an attempt to borrow around the problem instead of fixing it.
Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NMI News Service or its staff. All assertions are the sole responsibility of the writer. To submit an op-ed for consideration, email your piece to brad.ruszala@nminewsservice.com.