Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The year, “2022 is going to be a year of action and it’s going to be a year of a lot of activities,” declared Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo V. Ale during his remarks at last Friday’s cabinet meeting. “We have established the infrastructure to do this in 2021, now we are ready to act and to roll.”

Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga during his remarks at the cabinet meeting also noted that 2022 would be a year of action with lots of activities.

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

Among the activities cited by Talauega for 2022, is the Constitutional Convention, saying that, “in time the governor will announce when the work of the Constitutional Convention team will officially start but that is a major event that impacts all of us in American Samoa.”

The last Convention was held in 2010 and in October last year, the governor issued a memorandum directing ASG’s Office of Political Status, Constitutional Review and Federal Relations — referred to by many as the Political Status Office (PSO) — to prepare for the 2022 Constitutional Convention through research, public engagement, and logistical support and prepare and support a Mock Constitutional Convention in coordination with the local Education Department and other government agencies.

Gov. Lemanu mentioned the Constitutional Convention planned for this year but didn’t give a time frame for when it would be held.

TWO-SAMOA TALKS

Another event planned is the Two-Samoa Talks,” which he told cabinet members is, “to reconnect with our family in Samoa and you will hear more about that from the governor in due time.”

The last Two-Samoa Talks, officially referred to as the “Executive Summit of the two Samoas”, was held in the latter part of 2017 in Apia, hosted by then Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi. Former Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga led the territory’s delegation to that meeting.

INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

Talauega noted that ASG has many infrastructure projects that are going on right now such as roads, school buildings, ASG buildings, and such. “This is the year where we will really push to get those things done,” he said. “We need the cooperation of everyone to make sure that these things happen on time.”

He pointed out that while the “flow of goods from off island is something that we cannot control — we can control our procurement process. We can control the processing of payments so that our vendors are paid on time.”

Regarding the issue with “infrastructure and vendors,” Talauega told cabinet directors that “we all need to be aware that there are certain times that the governor and certain leaders” are out there and see things that need to be done but funding is not budgeted.

“When the governor sees things that need to be fixed but not budgeted, all of the sudden at that very moment, it’s budgeted,” he said, and pointed out that whichever department is responsible for getting the un-budgeted project paid, needs to get it paid.

“Don’t let the vendor come to you for payment and you say ‘it’s not budgeted’. The minute the governor orders it be done, it becomes budgeted,” Talauega said.

According to the lieutenant governor, there are “many vendors [faced] with this problem” where the work was done, as ordered by the governor, because it needed to be done, but “this poor vendor has to wait for years” to get the payment.

“Let’s be mindful of that. So what do we do to plan for it. We budget. We save money from the budget and put it away for those un-budgeted calls, emergency calls by the governor and leaders of our territory,” he said.

COVID-19

Talauega, who is also the chairman of the COVID-19 Task Force, spoke briefly on the COVID-19 issue, with the ongoing vaccination call for all those eligible to get fully vaccinated — one of the challenges faced by the territory due to the deadly virus.

“Let 2022 be the year that we overcome COVID. So let’s all work together and pray to God that we are able to do that. And one of the things that we can do to overcome this disease is to make sure that all of our members and all of our employees, and family are fully vaccinated and protected [from the virus],” he declared.

 “And we will continue to protect our borders, but at some point, we need to go back to normal life, start opening up these flights,” he said and noted that passengers on flights from Samoa are no long subject to quarantine upon arrival.

“And we would like to see flights from Hawaii go the same route. So people can just come in, check out and go home, after the long flight from Hawaii,” he said.