UTIER president: PREPA pensions can be paid with funds cut from LUMA

By The Star Staff

Electrical Industry and Irrigation Workers Union (UTIER by its acronym in Spanish) President Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo said Monday that a power rate increase to pay pensions for retirees of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) would be unnecessary if LUMA Energy’s funds were cut.

“This increase is totally unnecessary. LUMA has received nearly $500 million in loans that could cover pensions at least until the debt restructuring process is completed,” Figueroa Jaramillo said in a written statement. “There is no justification for continuing to burden consumers when the money is available, but it is being misused.”

The union leader said that in LUMA Energy’s first year as the private operator of PREPA’S transmission and distribution system, a $50 million deficit was generated, which was covered with the surplus from the special fund designated for employee resignation incentives. Last year alone, he noted, $456 million was transferred from reimbursements obtained by PREPA.

“What needs to be done is recover the money transferred to LUMA and cancel this costly contract that drains public resources,” Figueroa Jaramillo insisted. “Those directly responsible for securing pension funds here are the [Financial Oversight and Management] Board and the government of Puerto Rico. The people can’t stand another increase.”

In his opinion, the amount paid to LUMA for service charges and the additional funds allocated to its budget could even cover the 1.88 cents per kilowatt-hour that PREPA Executive Director Mary Carmen Zapata Acosta is proposing as an increase.

“Everything seems to indicate that, for the executive director of the Authority, the Fiscal Control [sic] Board, and LUMA, it is easier for the people to pay for their incompetence and poor decisions than to assume responsibility and cancel this contract, which has cost the country so dearly,” Figueroa Jaramillo said.