Allegations funds for American Samoa spent elsewhere
Updated
A report on a US television network has suggested that money given to American Samoa to help prepare for a disaster wasn't spent properly. CNN has spoken to a former director of Homeland Security in the US Pacific territory, Birdsall Alailima, who says a network of sirens to warn people of disasters such as tsunami was not built. Funding from the federal government was frozen in 2007 after inspectors discovered that the American Samoa government had been diverting the money for other purposes. 31 people died in the territory when a tsunami hit earlier this month. Ben Te'o, vice-president of good governance organisation Common Cause in American Samoa, says the accusations are credible.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Ben Te'o, vice-president of good governance organisation Common Cause in American Samoa
Pacific Beat has attempted to contact the American Samoa government for comment, but they have been unavailable.
The US Department of the Interior, which looks after overseas territories, has issued a statement in which it says the federal government has in the past fallen short in its obligations to insular areas.
The statement says in the previous administration there were real issues of neglect and failed oversight that need to be addressed quickly.
A US Department of Homeland Security audit of the American Samoan government's management of security grants describes its approach as fundamentally flawed.
Of two point three million US dollars given to American Samoa, one point seven million dollars of the spending has been questioned.
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TE'O: The source indicated in the report here was the director of American Samoa Homeland Security then and he does understand, he was in a place at a time when that funding was in place for the EAS system to be in place.
HILL: The report quotes Birdsall Alailima, who was the Director of the Territories Office of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2007 and he points out on a map where there was supposed to be 30 warning sirens placed around American Samoa. Those sirens were not placed as a result of this money not being used for the purpose.
TE'O: Well, they were not in place. As a matter of fact, he was released from his position so in the early part of 2007 and part of that was indicated by ASG or the Government of American Samoa that the part of the reasons why the federal funding was frozen for homeland security. In accordance to what I know, during the time, that he Birdy Alailima had done some coordinations and collaborations with ASTICA, or the American Samoa Telecommunication Agency here in American Samoa and they were supposed to be the one heading out that project to install the siren system in place.
HILL: So if the money was not used to install tsunami signs, where did the money go, what was it used for?
TE'O: Some of that money was diverted to pay salaries for some of the and I know Birdy, Mr Alailima, was trying to fight the system, but some of the folks in charge of diverting that money was a lot higher than he was. I say that a lot of people were not aware that this occurred. A lot of people were also not aware that the system was actually in place back then. The only testing was conducted here and American Samoa back in November-December timeframe in 2007 was a mobile siren test on the other side of the bay Brungo Brungo of the ....??? side and that was the only testing that was done and it worked and after that, they were looking at buying the rest of the sirens in place and start the installation system.
HILL: What's going to happen as a result of this information coming out? It would seem to indicate something of a corruption scandal?
TE'O: I would say they need to be surfaced for this investigations, there was long overdue that we need to really look at, because I know for a fact that if the siren warning system was in place. We probably would not have this many casualties as a result of the tsunami.
HILL: Is this a kind of thing that goes on in the American Samoan Government as a matter of course, does this sort of thing happen often, money just going astray?
TE'O: This is one of the things that this person that you are speaking to had been fighting since I got back here in 2005. It pretty much inside, and the leaders are inside the government. There is to much corruption inside.
HILL: Well this time, people may well have died as a result of this. Do you think this will change peoples attitudes towards corruption?
TE'O: I hope it will, I hope this report here, not only outside that will make its way here that will change the attitude of most of the people here on the island.
