Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The American Samoa Medical Center Authority Board of Directors has asked House Speaker Savali Talavou Ale for Faipule Lua’itaua Gene Pan be removed from his position on the House Health Committee after the faipule’s alleged “unprofessional and combative” performance during a recent House Health Committee hearing held last week.

In a letter to the Speaker, dated Jan. 22, 2024, that Samoa News was able to get a copy, the ASMCA made the request, saying that Faipule Lua’itaua came to the hearing with “his own agenda to gain political notoriety during an election year at the expense of ASMCA, its Board and Employees.”

The House hearing was held Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, and was to discuss five (5) specific topics, which were outlined in the Subpoena to Appear that requested five (5) witnesses: LBJ CEO Dr. Ledua Akapusi, LBJ Board Chair Dr. Malouamaua Tuiolosega, Dr. Jean Anderson- LBJ Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Sefanaia Kaumaitotoya, LBJ Chief Financial Officer, and Ms Veronica Gasio, LBJ Engineer.

Chairman of the House Health Committee is Manumaua Wayne Wilson, Faipule Lua’itaua is a member.

The five topics to discuss listed in the subpoena, were OR & ER Rooms, LBJ 1st Quarterly Report; Status of Generators; Status of EMS Building; and, Status of After Hour Clinics. Samoa News understands that documents were sent to the committee chair the day before the hearing regarding the 5 topics outlined in the subpoena providing reports and in the case of the quarterly report, the financials.

According to the letter sent to the Speaker, the motivation for Lua’itaua’s behavior during the hearing is supported by the faipule’s “repeated Facebook posts targeting the ASMC.” It states that “in the days leading up to the hearing Rep. Pan was openly posting that he’s going to take ASMC to task.” 

The letter notes that “Mr. Pan has previously engaged in this same behavior alleging in a public Facebook post that ASMC was failing to follow procurement rules and regulations regard the award of construction contracts.

“The post further called for the removal of the CFO and Board of Directors based on these allegations.”

The letter points out that Lua’itaua “pursued this same line of inquiry at the recent House Health Committee hearing,” targeting the LBJ CFO over the contract bid issue, and “insinuating that he broke procurement laws by funneling a project to his brother-in-law.” The letter notes that the CFO had recused himself from the procurement process for this particular project, and calls the inquiry an “attack intended to slander the reputation of the ASMC’s CFO…”

It further states that “Rep. Pan also went on to accuse ASMC of violation safety standards during the installation of a new generator.

“Specifically, he alleged that by using a crane to install the containerized generator near what he believed to be powerlines we violated safety standards.”

The letter states, ”This accusation is patently false.”

It says that a site assessment by ASPA was requested and done, examining the lines and ensuring “safe transfer of the generator” to the site. Approval was given for mobilization of the generator.

The photo Lua’itaua used to show the violation was also misleading the letter says, as “the angle from which the photo was taken made the lines appear closer than they were.”

In addition, the letter, which is signed by the LBJ board chair, CEO, Chief Ops Officer, CFO, Acting Chief of Engineer Rudolph Bartley, Lt. Colonel (ret.), USAF, and Director of Maintenance and Facilities- Command Master Chief (ret.) USN, says that “based on information provided to ASMC”, Lua’itaua has been “in contact with ASMC employees without the knowledge or consent of ASMC.”

ASMC believes he has encouraged these “employees to breach their duty of confidentiality to ASMC,” as all the information he “wishes to obtain” could have been done through a request via a subpoena or through the LBJ CEO. “Instead he chose to use ASMC employees as sources of information for his own agenda,” the letter states.

It characterizes Faipule Lua’itaua’s behavior as “demeaning to the integrity of the House of Representatives and the legislative process,” pointing to his playing a “public game with the reputation of ASMC, attempting to make ASMC appear unprepared and unknowledgeable regarding topics which were never the subject of the subpoena.”

It then calls for the removal of Lua’itaua from the House Health Committee so “this type of conduct should never be repeated.”

Samoa News has reached out to Faipule Lua’itaua for comment.

The letter does note that most of the committee members “restrained their questioning to the five topics and were professional in their questioning.”

Other reports requested during the hearing by faipule were sent to the chair of the House Health Committee this week, and included reports of ARPA expenditures to date; verification of funds that were recovered after having been illegally transferred off-island; update on Chaminade partnership and total costs incurred to date; and, update on Nursing recruitment program and total costs incurred to date on Fiji nurses.