Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting of the American Samoa Statistical Advisory Council, acting governor Talauega E. V. Ale stressed the importance of statistics and data collection for the work of the government and businesses.

Talauega, who also chairs the Council, thanked the members for contributing their time on this important work saying that “to me it’s an important and vital part of a functioning society. And I would like to believe that we are a functioning society.”

“To be able to accurately record, and to review and document and use information about our living — it's a critical aspect of a functioning democracy, a functioning government,” he said.

Talauega noted that it's a great honor for all the people of American Samoa for the membership agreeing to participate in the Council, so “we can rebuild this important component of our society.

“To be able to record, to use information — business information, birth information, all types of information — it’s important. It’s important for us to know about population. Without this knowledge, we would be lost,” he said adding that it's important to record this information for future generations.

He called on the entire community to work together, saying that “every year, the government of American Samoa and the people of American Samoa do great things.”

For example, the territory overcame the “COVID pandemic by coming together and helping each other.”

Another example he cited is that each ASG department keeps its own records — such as LBJ Medical Center keeps its own records and doesn’t share it with the Health Department.

So when a business asks for information so they can determine what is best for certain businesses or “certain products to bring to our people, LBJ only presents a percentage, [while] DoH presents a percentage but never” the full numbers, he pointed out.

“So that’s why we need to work together to share this critical information” to business people and the government, he said, adding that the work of the Council, also includes “making sure that we establish rules on how we collect data, and how we share.”

He acknowledged that some information is subject to certain limitations, “privacy”, but “there’s much more data and information that we need to collect and figure out how to use it to the benefit of the people of American Samoa.”

Talauega reiterated twice during his opening remarks the utmost importance of statistics and data in the work of government, business and community.

Petti Matila — the DOC director — spoke about the American Samoa Statistical Act of 2003 and provisions that included the provision establishing the Council. She also spoke about the roles of the Council.

Chief Statistician at DOC, Meleisea Vai Filiga, gave a presentation about the various products compiled by the Statistics and Analysis Division, which he heads — and discussed what the numbers mean and how they are used.

Among the issues on the meeting agenda was the election of officers, and Matila got the vice chair post and Paul Young, the secretary.

Also addressed at the meeting was the formation and discussion of subcommittees: Economic Statistics; Health and Education Statistics: Civil Society, Family, Law and Order Statistics; Environmental, Food Security and Climate Statistics; and Government, Federal and International Statistics.

Also covered on the agenda was the “Statistical Roadmap and Data Preservation — including American Samoa’s 2020 Census population count; and the New Statistical Strategies and Framework Plan for the next couple of months.

The Council was established by law with 21-members, including three from the private sector. And the Council was established as a consultative body to the Statistic Division of the DOC on matters of statistical activities.

The Council is empowered also to recommend policies, programs and procedures for statistical activities. Council functions, according to the law:

•           to review of censuses, surveys and compilation of various statistics;

•           to provide assistance with the analysis and evaluation of survey results; and

•           to offer suggestions for the development and improvement of statistics.

As previously reported by Samoa News, Gov. Lemanu P. S. Mauga, reconstituted the Council through a March 2022 memorandum and appointed three private sector members — as required by law from the private sector, businesses and the Chamber of Commerce.

The governor reiterated the Council’s functions shall include the review of census, surveys, and compilation of various statistical subjects; provide assistance with analysis and evaluation of survey results; offer advice for the development and improvement of statistics; and recommend policies programs, and procedures of statistical activities.

Click on attachment to download governor’s memo outlining the composition of the membership.