Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been instructed by the U.S House Committee on Natural Resources to gather new Federal Collection Data from U.S Territories, after it was determined by Ranking Member, U.S Rep. Raúl Grijalva and Delegates of the U.S territories that they have “heightened concerns about unique and disproportionate challenges in obtaining quality federal statistics related to the territories.”

In response, Gov. Lemanu P. S. Mauga has designated directors and leaders of 15 ASG departments and offices to work on this engagement with the investigative-arm of the U.S Congress. And a preliminary entrance conference call is scheduled for next week.

The governor requested that the ASG designated team be present for the call and to coordinate efforts to ensure timely response to meet the federal requirements of GAO, which issued a May 31 letter to the governor regarding this new engagement.

The letter from Jason Blair, managing director for International Affairs and Trade at GAO, included an information-sheet on the new engagement and preliminary key questions.

“Reported population declines in the territories — and any attendant effects on federal resource allocation — combined with data collection challenges encountered during such operations as the decennial census, have given rise to heightened concerns about unique and disproportionate challenges in obtaining quality federal statistics related to the territories,” according to the GAO notice.

“More broadly, prior work by GAO and others indicates the territories are not consistently included in the scope of data products of the 13 principal federal statistical agencies,” it says.

The three questions cited in the notice for review:

•           What are the current data gaps in federal statistical products related to the territories, and why do those gaps exist?

•           What is known about the implications, if any, for the allocation of federal funds resulting from data gaps in the territories?

•           What is known about the costs and benefits of expanding the scope of federal statistical products to possibly address their gaps in the territories?

As previously reported by Samoa News, territorial leaders have raised questions on the accuracy of the 2020 decennial census, as American Samoa’s population shows another decline over a 10-year period.

And the governor raised this same issue in his written testimony earlier this year before the U.S Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. And he requested “an opportunity to recount or consider another population census method on a quinquennial basis for US Territories.”

(Quinquennial — means occurring or being done every five years. And this is a process done every five years for the nation’s economic census, including the insular areas.)