Administrative Law Judge, Toetaga Albert Mailo has ordered the American Samoa Government to restore and pay Richard Seumanutafa’s back pay and benefits as of 2012. In the dispute, Seumanutafa was represented by Mark Ude, while ASG was represented by Assistant Attorney General Elana Rivkin-Haas.

Seumanutafa was an employee of the Criminal Justice Planning Agency (CJPA), who was recommended for a termination action, by former CJPA executive director Taufete’e John Faumuina several years ago, due to alleged misconduct on the job and violation of standards established administratively which govern employee conduct.

Seumanutafa is alleged to have said there were some instances in which funding was approved by a senior CJPA official for local entities that were not sub-grantees for the USDOJ’s STOP Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) grant funding.

CJPA is fully funded with federal grants and is also the designated State Administrative Agency (SAA) for all annual U.S. Department of Justice grant awards allocated for American Samoa.

Seumanutafa has been fighting his termination since then.

According to a ruling issued in April, the matter was before the ALJ as a personnel dispute between ASG and Suemanutafa. After the hearing on the merits of the dispute, the ALJ ordered the parties to submit proposed findings of fact and conclusions of the law to the court.

ISSUE

The issue before the ALJ is whether Seumanutafa is entitled to back wages under the American Samoa Code Annotated (ASCA) and American Samoa Administrative Code (ASAC). According to the order of the ALJ — Seumanutafa is entitled.

ANALYSIS/DECISION

According to the ALJ ruling, based upon the incorporated finding of facts and conclusions of law presented by Seumanutafa, the ALJ has jurisdiction to conduct a hearing and issue decisions with regards to many administrative matters. Seumanutafa is a career service employee with over 20 years of service and he has never been terminated. On April 23, 2012 ASG withheld his pay for 36 pay periods until his regular pay was recently restored. 

The ALJ agrees and concludes that Seumanutafa is a career service employee of ASG and he’s entitled to all the rights and protections of a career service employee.

The ALJ ordered ASG to to restore all back pay and benefits for Seumanutafa. It’s unclear how much ASG has to pay for this ruling.

Samoa News understands that the Attorney General’s office is appealing the ALJ’s ruling.