“Due to the number of critical issues raised in a report issued recently by the US Department of Homeland Security-Office of the Inspector General,” Lt Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga has appointed Jerome Ierome to the American Samoa Department of Homeland Security (ASDHS) office. This was revealed in a letter sent to the DHS Director, Utuali’i Iuniasolua Savusa last month by Lemanu.

Ierome of Tula and Onenoa is the coordinator for the American Samoa Government’s High Risk Task Force, who was hired last year May.

The critical issues the Lt. Governor is referring to were findings of an independent “performance audit” of a federal grant program awarded to the ASDHS, which found many problems, such as failure to identify and assess the territory’s risks and vulnerabilities, as well as non compliance with required training and exercise activities.

The audit was conducted between January and June of last year by the Washington D.C based certified public accounting firm of Foxx & Company and the performance audit centered on American Samoa’s management of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (USDHS) State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) grants for fiscal years 2009 through 2011.

Results of the performance audit and 17 recommendations — aimed at improving the overall effectiveness of American Samoa’s management of SHSP grants — were incorporated in the USDHS-OIG report to Brian E. Kamoie, assistant administrator of grant programs directorate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a bureau of USDHS.

Samoa News should point out that the current Administration took office in January last year, while the fiscal years covered in the performance audit covered the previous administration, who helped address several issues surrounding questionable spending in the USDHS-OIG financial audit of several programs.

According to the letter sent to Utuali’i, the critical issues in the report, “will have serious implications on current and future funding for the territory.”

Lemanu told the ASDHS Director that he has assigned Ierome to the ASDHS effective immediately (April 24, 2014) to assist the Department and the staff in responding to the issues raised. “Mr. Ierome is to be provided every support necessary to ensure the issues are effectively and satisfactory addressed,” said Lemanu.

Ierome told Samoa News it’s unclear how long he will be working with ASDHS, but confirmed that he’s still the High Risk Task Force Coordinator. “I am working for both, as the high risk coordinator and with the Homeland Security office,” he said.

Ierome graduated from Fagaiitua High School and the American Samoa Community College. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Loyola University of Chicago, Illinois and a Masters in Education (emphasis in Educational Leadership) from San Diego State University. He’s a former Executive Director of the Criminal Justice Planning Agency (CJPA) of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).