Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The 2023 Recovery Plan Performance Report issued by ASG’s American Recovery Plan Oversight Office identifies ten Executive Branch departments and offices that were awarded ARPA funds under the “Public Buildings CDC Compliance Program,” which was allocated $12 million

The Oversight Office announced that year that 10 government agencies applied for and were approved for funding but didn’t, at the time, list the names of the agencies, amount awarded, or purpose of the projects.

The Oversight Office said that a number of government agencies applied for funding and projects were approved. And a portion of the awarded funds were also made available to ASG agencies and departments for emergency response to address immediate needs for a safe working environment during the COVID-19 pandemic

ASG TREASURY

Top of the list of recipients is ASG’s Treasury Department, awarded $1.48 million for its “Modernizing Government Business Processes in a COVID-19 Working Environment” project.

The purpose of this project was mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in public spaces related to financial operations by leveraging the use of technology in varying manners as described in the original project proposal, according to the project overview.

This project addresses the need to modernize many government processes and procedures, using technology: in the upgrade of Enterprise Resource Planning software; improvement of the government Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software; government communications platform (email); productivity software licensing; IT support systems; cyber security (computer replacements); and a system to manage external (to the ERP software) workflows, forms, and e-signatures.

“This project contributes to addressing climate change in that it focuses primarily on moving older physical and manual processes — part of our COVID-19 mitigation - into digital processes,” said ASG Treasury in the report.

“It will positively contribute to climate change impacts by reducing the amount of paper created, leveraging the use of electronic archiving systems and electronic methods of transmitting paperwork bundles and batches in between agencies,” it says and gave summary of where the project stands as of June 30, 2023 — which is still ongoing.

PUBLIC WORKS

The Department of Public Works was approved $700,000 in ARPA funds, which the department says it intended to use this award towards the purchase of Office Cubicles and a Vacuum Truck.

DPW’s office spaces were reorganized to accommodate the new cubicles in order to allow for an efficient, safe and healthy working environment for employees and customers. DPW has allocated $20,000 for this purchase.

The Vacuum Truck — allocated a budget of $680,000 — replaces the old, inoperable, vacuum truck DPW already has. The Vacuum Truck is a specialized vehicle used for removing and cleaning out sludge, mud, debris, and other things of the like, from American Samoa’s infrastructure drainage systems.

“The importance of this vehicle is for clearing out flooded areas. Flooded areas present health risks for the local populace because it brings disease, and pollution,” the report says. Flooded areas also present transportation safety risks.”

It also says that the Vacuum Truck will have great impact to the territory because of its usefulness to clear out debris to stop the spread of disease and to prevent transportation hazards.

The status of this project, according to the report, is that a vendor was selected and awarded for the new Vacuum Truck: American Material Handling, Inc.

Projected arrival of Vacuum Truck to American Samoa is July 2024. The new vacuum truck goes through a process of various features being installed.

PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT

The Department of Public Safety received $450,000 and the proposed project includes 3 main/ key functions:

•           to build a natural ventilation system for the Tafuna Correctional Facility (TCF),

•           major renovations for 3 quarantine sites located at substations such as the Main (Central) Station in Fagatogo, Faga’itua and Tafuna stations; and

•           provide personal protective equipment, sanitation supplies, furniture and workstation computers, printers, and scanners for DPS stations.

The report points out that Public Safety Officers field emergencies, necessitate daily interaction with the general public. Although precautions are taken, the police officers were more easily susceptible to contracting the virus as they carry out their duties.

The daily increase of COVID19 positive cases also meant a daily strain on the responsibilities required of the Public Safety officers to help mitigate the community spread by providing more stringent, round-the-clock surveillance throughout the Territory. 

According to the report, it became clear during the COVID-19 pandemic that many of ASG’s buildings were in need of improvements or new facilities to meet pandemic operational needs. Improvements to the buildings or new construction to replace facilities that are incapable of meeting these needs are necessary for public health and safety. This was particularly true after the updated guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Samoa News will report on future editions on other ASG agencies whose requests were approved for funding under the public building CDC compliance program.