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Preparations for 2020 census in full swing

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fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The US Census office site for the 2020 Census will be the 2nd floor of the Lumana’i Building — which will have an elevator installed — after a contract was signed between the federal agency and the ASG Department of Commerce (DOC), the ASG designated agency to coordinate the population count every 10-years.

DOC’s fiscal year 2019 second quarter performance report states that “contract [is] signed for 2020 Census of American Samoa”  and two US Census officials including a census adviser for American Samoa were on island recently to conduct a follow-up on the “census site” at the Lumana’i building.

A lease agreement has been signed with the Development Bank of American Samoa (DBAS) that owns the Lumana’i building.

When asked for comments, DOC director Keniseli Lafaele told Samoa News Thursday that the contract was signed and fully executed on Dec. 31, 2018 and the contract stipulates that the terms, conditions, and services of the contract will be performed by DOC as designated by Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga.

“The 2020 Census of American Samoa will collect demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics of American Samoa,” he explained.

Lafaele said the two US Census officials  — Jason Kopp who is the Census Adviser for American Samoa; and senior census official Jennifer Kim — visited the territory on Apr. 25th.

“The purpose of their visit was to introduce the Census Adviser, allow Jason to get a feel of the island, and start looking for a place to stay for one year as the census adviser. They were also here to check again on the census site,” he said, adding that the 2020 Census headquarters will be at the Lumana'i Building where “we managed to lease 5 office spaces from DBAS to set up office for the 2020 census.”

Regarding the DBAS lease agreement, he said it went into effect on April 18th and DBAS is working with a contractor to carry out renovations and repairs to conform with the requirements set by the U.S. Census Bureau in the contract.

An elevator will be installed to meet the federal American with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirement, according to the DOC director, who noted that the renovations and repairs should be done by the end of this month, while the elevator installment should be complete by mid-September.

“If all goes well, the census office should be occupied by mid-September and the census office dedicated and opened on the first week of October,” he said.

CENSUS PREPARATIONS

As far as preparations for the 2020 census, Lafaele said that aside from the usual avenues of getting census information to the public — via media — the DOC Statistics Division is coordinating with the ASG Education Department on the "Statistics in Schools Program".

“We aim to launch this program in all public and private schools,” he said, adding that the Census Bureau will provide materials — brochures, posters, etc. — for the schools, and the “Census staff will work with teachers to raise awareness of the importance of the census among students; they in turn inform their parents about the importance of the census”.

“The objective is for parents to provide accurate information as much as possible,” said Lafaele, who credited his staff for their assistance in gathering detailed information for an accurate response to Samoa News questions.

Early last month, Lafaele appointed Chief Statistician, Meleisea Vaitoelau Filiga as the Census Area Manager.  (See Samoa News July 9th edition for details.)