The Senate Government Operations Committee held a second hearing Wednesday concerning spending by the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority on the A-250 Celebrations.
In addition to former and present members of the ASTCA Board, ASTCA CEO Folasaitu Sorepa Thomas appeared at the hearing.
Committee Chairman Senator Togiola Tulafono said the committee in its investigations cannot find evidence of a request from ASTCA to use funds for the celebration. His question to the CEO was who authorized the spending?
As she did at ASTCA‘s budget hearing last week CEO Folasaita explained that ASTCA’s FY2026 budget which the Fono approved included an allocation of $3.5 million of which $2.2 million was for handsets and supplies, $465,000 was for resupplies and $900,000 was for corporate events. This was separate from ASTCA’s budget for Marketing and Sales. She said the funding for corporate events was the source that ASTCA used for the A-250 celebrations. A total of $1.1 million was spent of which ASTCA paid $344,000 and the Reid Group also paid the same amount. $200,000 was from the Opioid Settlement Account and this was used for the cricket competition for the celebration.
Togiola asked if the agreement with the Reid Group included the promotion of company products and asked specifically what product was promoted during the celebration. The ASTCA CEO replied that during the concert, a new beer was launched.
Togiola said there was an inconsistency or contradiction in ASTCA’s intention to use the event for drug control purposes and at the same time allow the promotion of an alcohol product.
Folasaitu explained that ASTCA kept the events using the Opioid funds separate from the funding for the concert.
The majorty of questions that Senator Togiola posed during the two hour hearing centered on the ASTCA Board’s authority vs that of the CEO. Folasaitu stood firm that under an Executive Order issued in 2018 the CEO had full authority to spend the approved budget and did not have to seek approval from the board prior to spending the budgeted funds.
Togiola asked if the Board of Directors didn’t feel it was necessary to review the CEO’s spending plans for the A-250 celebration since it was a new expenditure.
Avamua Dave Haleck who was the board chairman at the time stated that the Board did question the CEO about the spending and she communicated that she had authority to spend the allocations for Sales & Marketing and Corporate Events. The Board also asked for an opinion from the ASTCA attorney who affirmed the CEO’s spending authority as prescribed by the 2018 Executive Order.
A follow up question from Togiola was whether the Board made any further efforts to monitor the spending.
Avamua said the Board felt it didn’t have authority to question the spending since the funds had already been approved in the budget. But he did advise the CEO to spend the funds carefully and prudently.
“So the board didn’t have any power to stop spending by the CEO?”, Togiola pressed.
Avamua again cited the executive order in his reply that the Board did not have that authority. He indicated that one of his last actions before he stepped down as Chairman was initiating resolutions advising the Governor to revise the Executive Order to give the Board authority to monitor and control spending by the ASTCA CEO.
Togiola said in his view ASTCA was being run as another department and was not a semi autonomous agency. From the statements heard at the hearing it was apparent to him that the board did not have much authority, that the CEO pretty much ran the whole operation without much oversight by the Board.
According to the ASCTA CEO each month the board reviews ASTCA expenditures from prior months and the same reports are given to the governor.
Regarding the appointment of Folasaitu as ASTCA CEO, Board Chairman Avamua confirmed that the Board selected Folasaitu for the position from among a half a dozen applicants, of whom two or three were shortlisted,
Asked if it’s the Board or the Governor that has the authority to fire the CEO, Folasaitu said she believes that if the Board hires the CEO it would also have the authority to fire the CEO.
