Issue #6: Surcharge to Government Agencies to pay for GovGuam Debt
In 1996, GovGuam agencies started not to pay their power bills, using the money allocated by the Legislature for utilities elsewhere. The Consolidated Commission reversed this practice by ensuring that GovGuam is current on utility bills, and current on payment plans for past due balances.
The
Government of Guam with the exception of the Department
of Public Works (Streetlight Arrears) are on payment
plans to pay down their past arrears. There were only
four agencies that had large past arrears for electric
service: GMH, DPW, GWA, and DOE/GPSS. Recently, the
Guam Memorial Hospital paid its past arrears in full
on June 20, 2007. This means that only three Government
of Guam agencies have past due balances. GPSS and GWA
have payment plans. There is no need for additional
surcharges to pay for these agencies debt. However,
DPW does not have an active payment plan. This must
be addressed.
Because
of Government of Guam's failure to reimburse the Authority
for streetlight billings in prior years, the proposed
rate increase for all rate classes is a little higher
than if otherwise. Thus, the CCU determined that a credit
surcharge should be established to encourage the Government
to fully allocate funds for streetlights as well as
to pay down DPW's arrears. The concept of this
credit surcharge is that for any month that the past
due streetlight payment is made in accordance with GPA's
amortization schedule, the funds would be returned to
all ratepayer classes. For periods that the government
does not make streetlight payments, the credit surcharge
will not be given to ratepayers. The amount of this
credit surcharge will be $.002154/ kWh.
If you multiply $.002154/ kWh by your energy consumption for the month, the result would be the credit you would receive on your bill. This would lower the power bill for all rate classes.
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