by Fili Sagapolutele

Samoa News Correspondent

While acknowledging that “our biggest problem right now” is the American Samoa TeleCommunications Authority (ASTCA), Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga has assured his cabinet members that ASTCA’s financial integrity will be restored in the next two years.

The governor’s public statement, made at last Friday’s cabinet meeting which was covered by local news outlets, came several days after he wrote to ASTCA board chairman, Sen. Fai’ivae Iuli Godinet, that his Administration has already put in place the authority’s financial recovery plan, which calls “for the immediate settlement of the leadership management issues currently existing” at the ASG telecom provider.  (See Samoa News Nov. 19th edition for details).

There was no mention of the letter to Fai’ivae during the cabinet meeting, where ASTCA was represented by acting chief executive officer, Falaovaoto Sualevai. As previously reported by Samoa News, Lewis Wolman has signed a one-year contract for the CEO post, to commence next month.

At the cabinet meeting, Sualevai reported that ASTCA’s focus now is to get the LTE (Long-Term Evolution) going. (Sualevai told a cabinet meeting in August that the LTE network would allow the use of SIM cards on ASTCA cell phones, as well as faster internet speed on mobile data.)

“There was a hiccup that delayed the [LTE] project for five days but the engineering team and contractor have managed to resolve that,” she explained. “So now we’re just moving forward to optimize the LTE project.”

On the operations side, she said off island auditors have completed ASTCA’s audit for fiscal year 2018 and have already left the territory. “Based on my meeting with the auditors, they were very pleased with the direction the operation is going compared to the financials that we had for the previous years,” she claimed  “And we just need to continue on.”

Sualevai noted that there “may be some audit adjustments, but that would only improve our numbers even better.”

Additionally, “there are some high ticket items from the past that are going to probably hurt us, but those are things [beyond] our control, but that would be the only things that would hurt our numbers.”

Although she didn’t elaborate on the “high ticket items”, Sualevai said that in FY 2018, ASTCA was “very strict” just like the government “in terms of cutting costs. And we managed to do that fairly well.”

For FY 2019, she said ASTCA will continue with the American Samoa Economic Development Authority (ASEDA) and focus on the set targets.

ASEDA has proposed new 2018 bonds totaling around $50 million with at least $35 million to help ASTCA pay off expenditures to Hawaiki submarine cable.

“As you are very aware of the fact that, our biggest problem right now is with ASTCA,” Lolo said after Sualevai’s report. “Why? It’s because when we took over [in 2013], ASTCA was heading in two different ways [directions].”

Lolo explained that the Togiola Administration at the time was taking the course of relying on the American Samoa Hawaii Cable submarine fiber optic cable while the ASTCA administration, as well as ASTCA “was pulling over to the O3B [satellite] and those other directions of providing communication to our territory.”

“So when we took over, we were caught in the middle, not knowing which way to take. But we do support the fact that what we need today is the submarine cable that has been endorsed by Governor Togiola,” said Lolo. “I think that was one decision that was very well done, but the problem is that all the [ASTCA] administration was focusing on was improving the O3B.”

When his administration took the helm in January 2013, Lolo says “We got hit from both sides with bits from O3B and the submarine cable, [but] here we are, we cannot deliver the service to our people.”

Lolo then revealed that he was thinking — at the time — of finding ways to sell ASTCA to a private company.

“It’s our belief, government should never be in business and that was our belief to begin with,” he said.  “But we cannot just let go of an infrastructure and a business that this government had over the years. And that’s where we are today.”

“We can assure you, in the next two years, we’ll restore the financial integrity of ASTCA, despite what’s going on. We’ll force our way to make sure that ASTCA will be given the resources to bring its financial capacity together,” he declared.

With ASTCA and Hawaiki, the Lolo Administration is focusing attention on boosting telecommunication to be another economic pillar for American Samoa, which has for many years relied on two main pillars — the canneries and the government.

“Economically speaking, we need a third pillar,” Lolo told cabinet members, adding that the canneries “can no longer support our economy” as they are now “only 50% operational.”

The Lolo Administration has sought support from the US Department of Interior on the telecommunication development, and Hawaiki cable was among the issues the ASG delegation discussed during a meeting late last month with DOI officials in Washington D.C.

“We definitely need another pillar to make sure we have a way forward. So hopefully, DOI will realize the fact that we need something,” Lolo told his cabinet, adding that  “we cannot have StarKist forever. When they run out of fish, when they run out of money in their pockets, they’ll take off — there’s no two-ways about it.”

He added, “Business is about making money. Let's not fool ourselves, let's be real. When businesses don’t make money, they’re not going to be here. So let's find a way to make sure that when they leave, at least we have something to fall back on.”

The governor stressed the need for a third economic pillar and that is the position ASG will continue to take when in discussions with federal officials on such matters.