No New Leases at Industrial Park in Tafuna

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No new leases at the Industrial Park in Tafuna have been executed until the audit findings of airport land by the Federal Aviation Administration have been resolved.

The FAA notified ASG that it should refrain from approving any new leases of land that was designated for the airport, which includes the Industrial Park acreage until there’s amicable resolution of issues that the FAA has raised in an audit made public last year.

Essentially the audit found that acreage assigned for airport development  was being used for other purposes with the approval and knowledge of FAA, which was a condition for ASG being awarded FAA grants.

The Department of Commerce says in its second quarter performance report that leases that were being processed at the time have been put on hold.

DOC is trying to compile an inventory of ASG leases in the Industrial Park to build a data base of all ASG real property.

In the meantime two leases in the TIP and four outside are being terminated.

DOC says several tenants of government land are asking for credit for costs incurred in cleaning up their lots.

One tenant is requesting another survey for their lease property to determine how much they should be paying in rent.

DOC lists hindrances to its efforts to properly document government leases, collect payments and make improvements to the leased property.

It says there’s no strict control on spending of the Tafuna Industrial Park account which will eventually become the Real property account  in the near future.

The report states that the Industrial Park was created created to supplement ASG coffers and the intention was to use revenues generated from the park to improve it.

DOC only took over the real property functions last year.

It says in order to carry out this added responsibility for their staff, more workers and equipment are needed.

The report says salary increases for staff is long overdue and needs to be addressed immediately,

There are four staff members in the division responsible for the Tafuna Industrial Park and the ASG Real Property.

DOC says, “While ASG has taken the first steps to getting a better handle and knowledge of its real property for centralization under one department, the monitoring and supervision of these properties are still fragmented because it still involves several ASG agencies to monitor the financial, legal and administrative responsibilities necessary to maximize financial gains through best management practices and generate revenue for ASG.”

The suggestion is made that there needs to be a centralized department fully staffed with financial, legal and technical experts plus field workers to carry out this huge task.

The report says a division within an ASG department cannot handle the task due to conflicting mandates and responsibilities.

It says until ASG realizes this and it only has to look at the Office of Inspector General Report of 1990.

This report explains how the existing system can never work and recommends setting up a centralized office solely responsible for conducting inventor , and collecting information that will enable government to document and keep track of its real properties.

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