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Lemanu wants cabinet members to lend assistance to ASTCA

fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — To ensure that the Hawaiki undersea fiber optic cable project moves forward as planned, without any delays, Lt. Gov. Lemanu Palepoi Sialega Mauga has asked all cabinet members to lend any assistance needed to the American Samoa TeleCommunications Authority (ASTCA), which owns the American Samoa spur of the Hawaiki cable.

The official Hawaiki cable landing ceremony was held Apr. 27 when the cable landed at Fogagogo, and the government touts it as a way to further improve telecommunications, bringing new economic opportunities for American Samoa.

Two weeks later, came the sad news of the passing of ASTCA chief executive officer, Pulele’iite Li’amatua Tufele, who had overseen the Hawaiki cable landing.

“While we are all stunned, shocked, and devastated by the sudden passing of a valued member of our cabinet family, and as we individually attempt to reconcile within ourselves our own mortality, reality sets in as we must rise from adversity to continue to actualize our pledge to serve our people to the best of our ability even at our own personal peril,” Lemanu, who is acting governor, wrote to directors and CEOs of ASG entities in a May 14th memo, titled “Availing Assistance to ASTCA”.

Lemanu noted that he and Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga “are truly blessed to have each of you as a member of our cabinet family and if I were compelled to define the spirit of our Administration, I would, without hesitation, point to our commitment to collaboration and team work.”

“We are bound by our shared vision anchored by our collective aspiration to make a difference in the lives of our people,” he wrote.

Lemanu said ASTCA is undergoing extensive transformation of its operation with consequences that will yield pervasive and overwhelming social and economic benefits for the people of American Samoa.

He noted that there “is no turning back on the work that has been implemented by the leadership” of the ASTCA board and management under Pulele’iite’s “skillful guidance”.

From now until the end of June, said Lemanu, ASTCA is hard pressed to complete the implementation of the support infrastructure facilitating Hawaiki to become operational and to roll out programs that will retrench ASTCA’s financial stability and future fiscal viability.

“In the spirit of collaboration, I am humbly conveying to you the wish of Governor Lolo for us to come together to lend ASTCA a helping hand and to avail any assistance that it might seek as our way of honoring and paying tribute to the exemplary work of our fallen colleague,” Lemanu concluded.

For now, the Hawaiki cable continues to go through testing with contractors from off island working with ASTCA personnel, with the later part of June or early July as the Ready-For-Service or RFS date — when the new cable, which will provide 200 Gigabits of Internet bandwidth — is operational.

The ASTCA board announced early last week in a news release the appointment of Fala Sualevai as acting CEO.