ASG shatters record with over $15 million
in savings last month

Call it what you want but the American Samoa Government managed to cut its spending by over $15 million in one month - a truly remarkable performance for the record books.

This year alone, ASG hasn’t been able to reduce its spending by even half that amount compared to last year.

According to the financial overview report for September 2007 for local funds, ASG spending for September 2007 fell to a whopping $5,963,078 down from almost four times that number ($21,384,889) in September 2006.

The four-page report, which was submitted from ASG Treasurer Velega Savali to Governor Togiola Tulafono, states that all but seven departments and agencies cut their spending last month compared to the same time last year.

The Governor’s Office led the way by cutting its spending by more than half from $517,135 in September 2006 to only $230,991 last month. The Judiciary followed suit by dropping its expenditures to $114,433 last month, down from $185,053 last September.

But the biggest drop came from the Treasury Department which went from spending $8,866,109 last September to only a fraction of that - $484,879 – last month. Other notable reductions come from the “Miscellaneous” expenses category which totaled $0 last month but expended over $3 million the same time last year. Funds transfers also decreased significantly from $2,120,344 last September to only $594,710 last month.

Other notable savings came from the following sources:

The savings could be attributed to the actions of Treasurer Savali and comptroller Brian Mix who refused payment on numerous invoices submitted last month as the fiscal year was coming to an end and too much money had been depleted. Case in point is the Fono who went over their budget and could not cover the last two payrolls prior to the close of FY07.