ASGERF Board says it will take legal action if need be

iaulualo-vaanatiu

The Board of Trustees of the American Samoa Government Employees Retirement Fund says it will take legal action if it doesn’t get information it has requested from the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority.

According to the board the information being requested is what big name companies need to know before committing to setting up in the territory.

This is according to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees Vaanatiu Tofala Iafeta, just back from meetings in Honolulu with a group that’s helping connect the Retirement Fund and companies such as Google, FaceBook, Cisco, Intel and others.

Vaanatiu said the companies they’re negotiating with need the information they’ve requested which relates to ASTCA infrastructure and operation, and government tax incentives before they decided to commit to doing business in American Samoa.

But he said ASTCA has been stalling.

Asked if it’s true that the Board of Trustees has threatened legal action to get the information, Vaanatiu said if they have to take that route they will.

He said the chairman of the ASTCA Board, Iulogologo Joseph Pereira has insinuated that there may be political intentions in the Board’s move to get customers for the Hawaiki Cable.

Vaanatiu said this is in reference to the Executive Director of the Retirement Fund Iaulualo Talia Faafetai’s intentions to run for governor in the 2020 elections.

The chairman said the insinuation is baseless. He said the board had resolved long before Iaulualo had decided to run to make a concerted effort to entice companies here that would make use of the Hawaiki Cable.

Expressing disappointment with Iulogologo’s response, Vaanatiu said their efforts are to protect the investment by the Retirement Fund in the Hawaiki Cable and has nothing to do with Iaulualo’s intentions to run for office.

He said the Retirement Fund attorney is dealing with ASTCA in trying to obtain the information that the companies need.

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