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Governor to review final budget for Pacific Arts Festival
Governor Togiola Tulafono will be reviewing the final budget submitted to him by the organizing committee of the upcoming 10th Festival of Pacific Arts. The committee is hoping that the American Samoa Government can supplement an additional $1 million to cover the noted shortfall for a budget that is a little over $4 million.
Despite concerns voiced from some countries about media reports regarding the budget shortfall for the Festival, the show will go on as scheduled.
The top two biggest expenses for the Festival are the food voucher program and the renovation projects for the different local venues. The food voucher program is to feed an estimated 2,000 delegates traveling to the territory to represent different island nations from around the Pacific.
An added expense includes a consultant (Stockwell Limited), hired to handle the live satellite feed of the two-week event. An estimated 8 million viewers from across the Pacific region are expected to tune in for the two-hour live broadcast of the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as an hour or two of highlights everyday.
It is unknown how much the committee will have to pay for this service.
Meanwhile, contributions have been pouring in for the Festival, with the most recent one being from COS Samoa Packing which donated $20,000 last week. Other generous contributors include Florence Saulo and Associates, the local Arts Council, ASCO Motors, ANZ Amerika Samoa Bank, and Bank of Hawaii.
In related news, steps are being taken to ensure that proper quarantine methods will be in place during the Festival. Recently, two officials from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community were in the territory to conduct a refresher training course for the quarantine officers from the local Department of Agriculture.
The course included training on effective inspection of incoming produce and other products that will be brought in during the Festival. In addition, the quarantine officers were familiarized with international inspection standards.
SPC is distributing information packets about American Samoa’s quarantine procedures to all participating countries.
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