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Community Briefs

Ten proposals received for air transport marketing study

Chief Procurement Officer Ivy Taufa’asau says the Procurement Office received 10 proposals on the ASG request for proposals (RFPs) on the ‘Air Transport Marketing Study’ project funded by the U.S. Department of Interior.

The RFP was issued May 3 closing June 4, no later than 2pm. However, Taufa’asau says her office is still waiting for the Department of Commerce to provide the names of people to serve on the Source Evaluation Board (SEB).

“Once the SEB is established, review and evaluation of the ten (10) proposals received by the Office of Procurement will take place,” she added.

According to the RFP, ASG is seeking to assess the need and market for expanded air cargo and passenger transportation services at Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa, a U.S. territory that “is very poorly served by domestic and international air passenger and cargo services.”

FBI OFFICE CLOSURE UPDATE

Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman Tom Simon confirmed that the federal agency informed Governor Togiola Tulafono’s office earlier this week of the closure of the local FBI office to be consolidated with the Honolulu office.

Simon told Samoa News that Mike Sala, director of the local Department of Homeland Security was also notified about the closure before the public announcement was made on Wednesday.

There was no reaction from the governor’s office over the closure of the local FBI office and Sala had no comments when asked Thursday. 

Sala did say that despite the FBI's local office closure, the American Samoa Customs Border Control Task Force - whose members are representatives of the FBI, Office of the Territorial and International Criminal Intelligence and Drug Enforcement or OTICIDE and the Office of the Independent Prosecutor - will continue.

The FBI said in a news release on Wednesday that all FBI operations and investigative efforts in American Samoa will be handled by the Honolulu office. The decision for this consolidation was made by the U.S. Congress who cited budgetary reasons. The local office will be phased out gradually over the next few months as equipment and supplies can be moved to Honolulu.