5 Oct 2011

American Samoa in the dark on details of cable investment

11:37 am on 5 October 2011

Details of the status of the American Samoa government's nine million US dollar investment in the undersea fibre optic cable continue to elude lawmakers.

This despite a Fono request for a report before the current legislative session ends this week.

Representative Larry Sanitoa and other lawmakers have been trying to find out about possible dividend earnings from the company managing the project.

Mr Sanitoa had requested a House committee hearing before the Fono ended last Friday but the hearing was later cancelled because government officials and the company weren't able to attend.

The government's treasurer says his office has not received any money from the fibre optic operations.

Mr Sanitoa says his request for an update is a reasonable one that any investor would make especially when the government has invested such a large sum of money in the project.