Sen. Tuaolo Manaia Fruean plans to introduce a bill soon that would give the Development Bank of American Samoa board of directors the authority to select and appoint the bank’s president, without having to go through the governor and then a Senate confirmation process.

Under current law, the Senate confirms members of the DBAS board of directors; and the governor, with the board’s approval appoints the DBAS president, who is then subject to Senate confirmation only.

As previously reported by Samoa News, the DBAS is the only semi autonomous agency whose boss is subject to Fono confirmation — in this case the Senate, which last month confirmed Ruth Matagi-Fa’atili for another four-year term as DBAS president.

Early last week, Tuaolo introduced a bill which amends the law to allow the DBAS president to be appointed by the governor and approved by the board, without having to go before the Senate.

The bill’s preamble states that by appointing the board, the governor is entrusting them to utilize and maximize their fiduciary duties to manage the bank to the best of their abilities.

However, when the bill went through a Senate Government Operating hearing yesterday, committee chairman Sen. Galeai Tu’ufuli suggested that the measure be tabled with the Senate leadership, or returned to the bill’s sponsor for any necessary amendments because there are some discrepancies with the proposed amendment to the current law.

Tuaolo, who attended the hearing, told the committee that when the measure was introduced in the Senate he had sought to withdraw the bill because it was not what he wanted — referring to wording of the bill. He said his intention is that only the board is involved in the selection and appointment of the DBAS president.

He explained that other semi autonomous agencies, such as the American Samoa Power Authority, and American Samoa Community College, have their boards appoint the person to head that authority, after the Fono confirms the boards.

Tuaolo said DBAS is the only authority whose board and president is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Fono — referring to the Senate, and said this process is “meaningless”. 

He said the Senate’s legal counsel is drafting a new measure that would give the DBAS board the authority to appoint the bank president, with no one else involved.

Galeai agreed with Tuaolo that the boards of authorities are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Fono, and it’s the responsibility and duty of the boards to select and appoint who they want to head that authority.

In order to complete the process of each measure introduced in the Senate, the bill went through second reading yesterday during the Senate session, where senators agreed to table the measure.