The American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA) has created a new position that pares down the job responsibilities of the Business and Finance Manager and divides those responsibilities among current staff members.

The new position, financial strategist, according to ASPA Executive Director Utu Abe Malae, is being advertised locally and seeks “an experienced financial strategist with appropriate industry experience in financial planning and strategy, statistical analysis, analytics, strategic planning, quality management, promoting process improvement, forecasting, corporate finance, possesses sharp financial skills, and is able to handle complexity.”

In response to Samoa News inquiries about the need to create such a position, and why someone like the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) or others in the ASPA accounting department can’t handle the job, Utu said, “you need a strong financial and accounting staff… and our accounting is excellent,” adding that the semi-autonomous agency has had unqualified financial and single audits over the years.

“But there is a lot of financial type work that needs to be done,” he added.

According to Utu, ASPA has a capital projects budget of about $57 Million for fiscal year 2014, with a total budget of $133 million.  

He explained that the position of Business and Finance Manager was advertised already. “Unfortunately, the candidate that we were about to hire turned us down at the last minute.”

Therefore, Utu continued, “we pared down the job responsibilities and divided them among current staff and this one new position, ‘_____Financial Strategist’.”

The new position requires the applicant to hold a bachelor’s degree in finance, economics, or business, but an MBA is preferred. The applicant must also have six years experience as a financial strategist or analyst in a utility or related business.

The salary range is $60,000 to $80,000 per annum and the successful applicant will report directly to Utu and work closely with the CFO.

Among other duties, the responsibilities of the financial strategist include developing organization prospects by studying economic trends and revenue opportunities; identifying monetary resources; developing financial strategies by forecasting capital, facilities and staff requirements; maximizing returns on invested funds by identifying investment opportunities; recommending an investment portfolio; and monitoring financial performance by measuring and analyzing results.

The deadline for applications is 4 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 25, 2013.