Without any response for over a year from the executive branch on the legality of payouts to the previous administration, Senate Government Operations Committee chairman Sen. Galeai Tu’ufuli is calling a hearing next week, where Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale will be asked to testify.

The committee will also look into why the government gave $10,000 bonuses to long time employees who have since retired.

PAYOUT PROBE

In late September of last year, Galeai wrote to Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga regarding questionable payouts to officials and employees of the previous administration that totaled $891,164.87.

This letter followed committee hearings where ASG officials testified and Galeai asked the governor for the Executive Branch to conduct an investigation into the legality of these payments, with the intention of recouping any ASG funds which were paid out contrary to law.

Officials of the previous administration who received payouts included the former governor, lieutenant governor and cabinet directors.

Then last month, Galeai wrote again to Lolo about his request for an investigation into the payouts, saying that the committee’s interest in this issue remains high, as well as the public interest.

Copies of both letters were also sent to Talauega.

“No one has responded yet, so I’m calling a hearing, where the attorney general is the only witness so far scheduled to testify,” Galeai said Tuesday this week, adding that he is looking at Nov. 6 for the committee hearing.

“I’m not trying to prosecute anybody but I’m trying to make sure they [executive branch]  go after those people who received the payouts, to get the money back,” he said. “The money belongs to the people, it belongs to the tax payers, especially.”

“[But] here we have people, who willingly and knowingly defrauded the government,” Galeai alleges.

According to the Manu’a senator, “payouts” are for those who are career service employees and they are the only ones who are authorized to receive such benefits as unused sick and annual leave, as cited in the law and regulations.

But for former directors who are on contract as well as the governor and lieutenant governor to get payouts for unused sick and annual leave — that is not in accordance with the law, Galeai said.

He also said that the governor and lieutenant governor are elected officials and shouldn’t get payouts for annual and sick leave. “But if that is the case, then senators and House members should also be entitled to such payouts,” he said.

Responding to Samoa News inquiries, the governor’s executive assistant Iulogologo Joseph Pereira said yesterday afternoon that the attorney general has completed his assessment pursuant to the request from Galeai.

However, Iulogologo referred Samoa News questions to Talauega, who didn’t immediately reply.

When contacted yesterday afternoon, Galeai was thankful that the assessment is now complete but added, “I still have not received anything from the Executive Branch, but hopefully they will send soon an official response.”

$10,000 BONUSES

Galeai also revealed that the committee will also probe the issue of the three ASG employees who each received $10,000 this year when they retired after serving in government for many years. “I want to find out who authorized these payments,” he said.

It was revealed during Fono hearings in August this year that Lolo has put a stop to the $10,000 bonuses.  Galeai said during the hearings that there “is no law and no authority given under any statute to pay out these bonuses.”