Selection of cabinet members, taxes, unfriendly immigration laws, increase of government workforce and tourism were among the issues discussed during the American Samoa Chamber of Commerce (ASCoC) forum with the gubernatorial candidates which included the teams of Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga & Lt. Gov. Lemanu Palepoi Sialega Mauga, Faoa Aitofele Sunia & Larry S. Sanitoa, and Tuika Tuika & Salanoa Iuni Maeva Saveena.

According to the ASCoC the two main goals of the local business community is to promote economic growth in the territory and to have the local government support and build a strong, private sector.

The forum was almost two hours long and the six questions were read all at once, and then the candidates all took turns in announcing their platforms and their answers.

In particular was the question regarding the increase of the ASG workforce over the years, including the current administration.

 “Over time ASG Administration including the Legislative Branch and ASG in general has added employment numbers and payroll costs to a level that our fragile economy simply cannot afford. Obviously, employment MUST move from the public sector to the private sector. Economic development is a large part of the answer, however… What is your plan to curb ASG’s runaway employment numbers?

FAOA & SANITOA

Faoa in response to the employment question, said the workforce is costing the American Samoa Government over $81.5Mil and they've reviewed financial documents and audit reports from the last three years and they “completely agree” — the size of the workforce, its multiplied greatly especially in the last four years.

“Its no surprise because of election season, the hiring continues, with some agencies like ASTCA hiring 30 brand new employees on a three-month contracts.” Faoa further noted the need to downsize the government.

“We agree there is a need to downsize the government workforce while continuing to provide essential services for our residents, however we do not believe a massive layoff of hundreds of displaced workers is in the best interest of our people and our government. Therefore we have focused our attention in developing a transition plan which will move government funded services to where they belong in the community and this will allow us to ensure basic services continue to be accessible, people remain employed and money continues to flow through the economy.

According to Faoa, for example, shelters’ services are currently provided by a Department of Human Social Services arm and the Department of Youth Women Affairs each one fully staff three eight-hour shifts and monies for operational costs for 24 hours services. Shelters’ services do no need to be run by government employees, the nature of these services more appropriately belong within the community and faith based organizations, supported with government and private funding, according to Faoa, who added their commitment to review short term contract employees to determine if there is a justifiable need as well as a budgeted funding source for the contract position.

Sanitoa pointed out that growing the local economy means bringing in new money, but not through creating more debts, nor raising taxes and fees that become an added financial burden to the people — as at the end of the day every dollar paid to Customs at the port and every import tax collected from local businesses is passed on to the people.

The first priority is support existing businesses and the most basic way to do this is for the government to pay its bills on time.

“Remember I have worked in the private sector I know that local businesses cannot survive the cash-flow crises when government picks and chooses when to pay its bills and who to pay,”  Sanitoa said.

LOLO & LEMANU

Lolo said their economic development philosophy is very simple: “Develop our economy to grow and develop our private sector to become the backbone of our economy and to become the major employer of our island.”

To do that, Lolo said its only fair for their team to describe the economical landscape when they first stepped into office. According to Lolo what happened several years ago impacts what is happening now.

“When we took over the helm of this government in 2013, we inherited debts and liability equal to $71million... the big question that we have to think about as leaders is what are you going to do with those debts and liabilities, because whatever we do today and going forward, unless we address those issues there will be no future for our children.

“Lemanu and I took actions to respond, to address the mountains of debt we inherited from the previous administration, of which Faoa was part of that administration. Going forward is very difficult for the people and that’s what I meant about we have to be real, honest with our expectations.”

Regarding the ASG workforce, Lolo took issue with the specific question of the candidates’ plans to curb ASG’s increased employment numbers.

“I never thought that the Chamber would pursue such a principal or thinking that we need to reduce the employment by the government, go back and read the history of our economic development for the last 50 years — this island has depended on two things: investment by the canneries and the federal and local government workforce. These two main factors contribute to the economic success we have today.

“For us to reduce the workforce I don't think that’s a responsible thing to do because once we do that, you know what’s going to happen to your business, you’ll see no more people eating at your restaurants, stores will be closed, and everything and anything can happen to your business once we cut off the line that feeds our economy.

“A reduction in consumption — I'm not too sure where we stand on that,” Lolo said adding that on the other hand the people they gave jobs to, that’s their commitment to the people.

TUIKA & SALANOA

Tuika and Salanoa’s slogan is to make American Samoa great again and the reason behind running for office is due to the financial situation the government is in from previous administrations and the current one.

Tuika said with the liability that ASG owes, with the deficit of the government, they looked at all the angles to determine how to answer the questions. Their team will take appropriate actions to return the ASG administration operation and management to where it was when the secretary of the US DOI, appointed the governor for American Samoa.

And this can be done by removing all executive orders and establishing all authority agencies. He said ASG is not a business entity and it’s not supposed to run a business. They will also require all ASG employees to be career service under the equal employment opportunity act and one salary pay scale for all ASG agencies, and these actions alone will save ASG and taxpayers over $100million by 2018, said Tuika.

He further noted that there would be no more directors, no more authority agencies that are running as businesses.