There’s more than $76 million worth of construction happening in American Samoa, currently.
The information was revealed in a report that Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) Ti’amasunu Dr. Mikaele Etuale provided at the request of the House Government Operations Committee last week. It lists all active construction contracts as of January 11th, 2021.
The contracts have a total value of $76.2 million. Of that amount, all but $15.4 million is awarded to a single construction company – Paramount Builders.
Ti’amasunu answered Committee questions regarding the awarding of contracts, the progress of projects some of which had groundbreaking ceremonies last year and the justification for sole-sourcing of road repair projects.
Fofo Representative Andra Samoa stated she had tallied the active projects and out of the total worth of $76.2 million, one company, Paramount Builders is awarded $61.8 million in projects leaving just $15.4 million for the rest of the construction businesses.
“Are all these projects by Paramount ongoing?” asked Rep. Samoa.
The CPO answered “yes.”
Samoa recalled that for the Afono road project, the Director of Public Works Faleosina Voigt had testified that the job had been sole-sourced to Paramount Builders for $1.7 million. She said Paramount had materials ready for the Afono road left over from the LBJ Hospital road project.
She said there was already a contract for Paramount Builders for the Afono road job.
The CPO explained that it’s true the job is being sole-sourced to Paramount but the contract has not been completed. Procurement is waiting for the back-up documents to draw up the construction contract for the Afono road.
Rep. Manavaalofa Tutuila Manase asked about the status of the Taputimu Loop road which had a groundbreaking last year.
According to the CPO, the Source Evaluation Board has submitted a recommendation and he needed to review the bid files and documentation before making a decision on a winning bidder.
