Governor-elect Lolo Moliga’s transition team is expected to make its first report to Lolo and Lemanu today.

The leader of the team, Afoa Lutu, said the team’s first task was to create a roster of people who will be doing the transition work over the next five weeks.

Afoa said his group has not actually begun doing the transition work, but has been busy organizing how the team will function in the weeks ahead, and appointing individuals to serve on the various transition team sub-committees.

He said, for example, that there will probably be a team leader for each ASG department, but that is subject to the final decision of Lolo and Lemanu.

In the meantime, the Governor-elect is accepting resumes for people interested in being a department director; Afoa said his team is not involved in that aspect of the new administration.

Previous reports quote Lolo as saying that he and Lemanu will select the new Secretary of Samoan Affairs and Attorney General directly, and interested parties should not apply for those posts.

GOVERNOR’S OFFICE TRANSITION REPORTS

Samoa News understands that before Gov. Togiola Tulafono left the territory last week, Thursday, he told his staff in the governor’s office — via his secretary — that transition reports of the various offices under the auspices of the governor’s office, and the Governor’s Office itself, were to be ready for the Lolo and Lemanu Team by last Friday.

Offices that are a part of the governor’s office include the ASG Office in Honolulu, the Sports Complex, the Medicaid Office, Insurance Commission, ASG Office of Veterans Affairs, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Historical Preservation Office, the Government House, which would be all staff working at the residence of the governor and the lt. governor, and the Protocol Division, which handles the VIP lounge at the airport and any of the formalities for the governor’s office.

Two other offices that could be considered as also under the Governor’s Office are the IT Office and the American Samoa Economic Stimulus and Recovery Office (ASESRO). They were stand alone offices, but no longer have budgets, after the Fono budget hearings for FY 2013. The offices were moved by the Fono to the Governor’s Office; and at the time, Togiola said that he was looking to continue to fund these offices despite the move — but after the Special Session in mid October, the budgets for these offices were not taken up at all by lawmakers.