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Transition Report from the Governor’s Office incomplete, says Afoa

The in-coming administration’s transition team chairman, Afoa L Su’esu’e Lutu, says the challenge they are facing is that they are not receiving reports from several Government departments. He said that one of these departments is the Governor’s office, but Afoa did not specify which others have yet to turn in completed reports.

“We have yet to receive the memorandums and executive orders from the Governor’s office. We were told they have already been handed over to the teams, and yet that is not the case.”

Motu Seui, the governor’s personal assistant told Samoa News that they have supplied everything that was required from the transition team.

When asked about Afoa’s inquiries regarding the memorandums and executive orders, Motu said he would speak to the legal counsel for the governor’s office, to see if they held anything back.

Afoa noted that all the reports for all semi autonomous agencies have been turned in. He specifically mentioned the American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA), American Samoa Tele Communications Authority (ASTCA) and the LBJ Medical Center reports, which he said have been turned in to Governor elect, Lolo Matalasi Moliga and Lt Governor elect Lemanu Peleti Mauga for their review. Administrative officials at American Samoa Community College also indicated to Samoa News that their transition report was also finished and has been turned in.

Afoa said they are now working on the departments with fewer personnel. “Some departments are cooperative but some are uncooperative with the transition committees,” Afoa said. “But this is expected to happen during any transition period — it’s in our human nature. But overall, the transitioning process has been running smoothly,” he added.

He said more than 400 committee members, which make up 43 subcommittees are now at their final stage of compiling information.

“We are looking at completing the compiling of reports by next week,” said Afoa.

He told Samoa News that the transition committee members have guidelines to follow concerning the type of information they are looking for and how they are to go about doing their job.

(See Transition Team instructions elsewhere in this issue.)