The American Samoa Tele Communications Authority Board rejected a $65,000 contract proposed by the ASTCA CEO Moefauo BIll Emmsley for Michael McDonald for six months recently, and ASTCA Chairman, Roy Hall Jr in response to Samoa News queries, confirmed this.

“The contract was not approved by the Board, but was an executive action by the CEO, and the Board is reviewing this matter,” said Hall Jr. The issue came to light when a board member in conversation with Samoa News stated that he was “shocked” as to why the contract was for $65,000. “That's the amount for a Directorship title or Deputy Director,” said the disappointed board member.

The board member who spoke on condition of anonymity told Samoa News he was puzzled and the big question that came to his mind was, "Why, $65,000?” Calls and messages left with the CEO’s office since last Friday were not returned nor answered. It's unclear to Samoa News what position was proposed for McDonald within ASCTA. Emails to McDonald were not immediately answered as of press time.

McDonald was formerly the local manager for the Native Hawaiian Holding Company (NHHC), which has been under the microscope of the Attorney General and the Department of Human Resources, and has since been sued by ASG.

NHHC signed the contract with the government to provide training and employment in the contact center industry for 900 NEG participants and authorized it to operate job placement and support services in a setting that would serve as part of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Workforce System.  

However to date, HR Director Sonny Thompson held off on the last payment of $1.5million to NHHC citing “questionable costs and failure to comply with conditions of contract” for the $3million that was already paid out.

In other ASTCA News, according to the minutes of the April board meeting, while the ASTCA board is discussing the CEO’s contract on a month-to-month basis, Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga has written to the board to extend the ASCTA CEO’s contract for one year. This was approved in a motion of four yeas and three nays.

In April the ASTCA board agreed to send an entourage to not only discuss ASTCA matters but also pay a courtesy call to the governor, who is still in Honolulu, due to medical problems.

According to the minutes of the meeting “Chairman Roy & Vice Chair Faiivae Alex Iuli Godinet, Don Fuimaono, ASCTA CEO Bill, Alex Sene Jr, and Legal Counsel Gwen Langkilde traveled on a Friday and returned the following Monday.

NEW BUSINESS IN APRIL

According to the April minutes, there were concerns of ASTCA Financial Statements being incomplete. Another issue discussed was why ASCTA does not have a Deputy Director, it was brought up by Fonoti Douglas Jessop, a board member. He pointed out that all other departments have a Deputy Director who would be Acting when the CEO is away. The board discussed the matter and pointed to semi-autonomous agencies of ASG, where those in line positions are subject to work as acting, when the CEO is away.

Another issued raised by the Chairman, is that all Board travel as well as CEO travel must be pre-approved by the Board.

CEO’S REPORT TO THE BOARD IN APRIL

According to the minutes of the April meeting ASTCA’s cash flow is at $770K, up from $710K in March, largely due to management of debts and liability.

On the BLAST project — which is overall 46% complete, they are awaiting FCC licensing, manufacturing of undersea cable and permit from ACOE Hawaii to lay the cable. Construction and drilling by Michels, and pulling of fiber cable is ongoing. Also, the 03B Tafuna satellite station should be completed by late June. “ASTCA owes $300K for 03B services. Four additional satellites caused a delay in the overall scheduling.”

The MIND Pre-paid Platform Project should also be in place by next week. First phase of the MIND contract is 100% completed and first phase of installation is 95% complete. Second phase for “provisioning” is under negotiations with Ericson and 55% completed.

Third site visit by MIND consultants is completed and awaiting interface with NSIC. The MIND project is to provide the replacement of ASTCA's aging prepaid billing platform.

1.             According to Hall, the contract has been in place for a few years, but it was updated in Aug. 2013 to complete the software installation that will improve the billing platform and improve prepaid cell phone service. The cost of this contract is unclear, as the ASTCA Chair stated that the contract has a non-disclosure confidentiality provision.

2.              

3.             Other issues discussed in April were the ASTCA White Pages Phone Book, which is in planning stage. The last ASTCA phone book was in 2009. Also the CEO hopes to allow customers to be able to get their bills and to pay online with credit cards.

4.              

The FY2015 Budget has been submitted by the CEO for Board perusal and as per Lolo's mandates, the ASTCA CEO kept the budget ceiling, at $16M, submitting the same as last year’s ceiling, with adjustments in items per department.

Of interest is the “adverse action report on internal harassment case" which has been resolved and a report submitted to the ASTCA board.

“Lastly, on Policy Level, the CEO recommends that ASTCA must commit to the process of becoming a full fledged “Authority.”

BACKGROUND

The ASTCA White Pages Phone Book contract is still with John Newton, a former American Samoa business man, according to his blog that can be found on his website: pagopago.com.

Newton in his blogs about the ASTCA telephone book, said the contract for directory was completed and signed on Nov 30, 2010. The plan was to have a new phone book available for 2011. However, the last directory to be published was in 2008, because “ASTCA was unable or unwilling to provide the contents of the directory as they had agreed to do in a [still in force] contract,” he states.

He further notes that efforts to get the phone book project up and going under the new ASTCA management have not been successful either, with the last meeting held between the parties in a conference call in November 2013.