Budget director informs cabinet of last minute changes to FY 2021 budget

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The American Samoa Government’s final fiscal year 2021 budget plan is 7% higher than it was in FY 2020 for the Executive Branch, and includes the new entry level threshold salary level for high school graduates and Associate of Arts degree holders, according to Office of Program Planning and Budget director Catherine D. Saelua.

Through an executive order last month, Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga established the entry level minimum wage for Associate degree holders at $16,000 and $12,000 with those with high school diplomas. (See Samoa News edition July 31st for details.)

The FY 2021 budget call letter to cabinet members in March this year, tells departments and agencies that the government maintains in the new fiscal year — which begins Oct. 1, 2020 — the current budget ceiling threshold of $421.48 million.

Speaking at Monday’s cabinet meeting, Saelua said the FY 2021 budget preparation is completed, with some changes made. “We’ve incorporated the personnel policy” by the governor on the minimum wage entry level for holders of Associate degrees and high school diplomas.

Because of these changes, Saelua said the budget book — which was already at the ASG Print Shop— was returned so that the changes could be made for the final FY 2021 plan.

She said directors have many needs for their respective departments and agencies and her office complied as agreed upon by the governor.

Now the FY 2021 budget is all done, she said and provided a brief verbal summary of the budget but didn’t share specific figures or dollar amounts.

For the Executive Branch, it’s about a 13% increase from the current FY 2020 budget. Under the Special Program budget, administered by the Governor’s Office, there’s a slight reduction compared to FY 2020.

The decrease under Special Program is 11%, which is a savings for the Executive Branch, according to Saelua, who noted that the final FY 2021 budget plan for the Executive Branch is an increase of 7%.

She requested directors to complete needed paper work for employees affected under the new Associate degree and high school diploma threshold policy and submit it to the Human Resources Department to reflect the new pay scale.

Lolo said he had given Saelua the ceiling of an up to 15% increase for FY 2021 from the current fiscal year and thanked the budget director for getting the budget completed.

Neither the governor nor Saelua provided any information as to when the FY 2021 will be submitted to the Fono, which reconvenes next week Monday following a two-week mid-session recess.

According to the governor, preparation of the FY 2021 financial plan was much different than the previous years since the Administration first took office in January 2013. He said the goal is that the FY 2021 budget be presented to the new incoming governor, with sufficiently approved funds to ensure that the local anti-deficiency law is not violated.

He told cabinet members that between October and December, the Administration would prepare and finalize its transition report to be presented to the new governor.

He believes that it will be sometime at the end of November that he will meet with the incoming governor to present the status of the government to the new administration.

ASG’s status, includes whether ASG has money in the bank or not, total debts and other important matters so that the new governor is prepared to deal with the government in 2021, according to Lolo.