by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Who will supply the island's fuel? That will be the topic of discussion at tomorrow's meeting of the Consolidated Commission on Utilities. Although the original protest was withdrawn another protest was filed against the extension and sits with the Office of Public Accountability, despite this protest GPA has proceeded with the RFP for a new fuel bid which the agency deliberated on last week.

CCU chairman Simon Sanchez said, "It was a two-step bid this time and the first step was do they all qualify as a supplier because there was some questions in January at the first bid are all three suppliers capable of providing the oil."

According to Sanchez the grounds for the original protest are not valid as the window of opportunity given to bidders has closed three years ago. Furthermore GPA argues that the protest against the extension also has no bearing, as the original contract for fuel stipulated that an extension could be made.

Rather than wait and not know where our islands fuel will come from and with time ticking away, it was mutually agreed upon by the bidding parties and GPA to issue a new RFP, in which the same three bidders Petrobas, Hyundai Corporation and the protesting company Vital have submitted a pricing proposal.

"Now the question is what's the best price for ratepayers, GPA management will reveal those prices on Tuesday with a recommendation I assume to award to one of those three bidders and we'll take that up on Tuesday," said GPA spokesperson Art Perez. He notes GPA has sent their comments regarding the protest to the OPA and is now waiting for a hearing to be scheduled. The CCU meeting is scheduled for tomorrow evening at 5:30pm.