Gov explains since-lifted ban on admin testimony at House Hearings

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Additional information outlined in Gov. Lemanu P. S. Mauga’s letter to House Speaker Savali Talavou Ale gives rise to the reasoning behind the governor’s since-lifted suspension of Executive Branch cabinet members and workers from testifying before any House of Representatives hearing.

The governor requested that the House and its staff consider undergoing Equal Employment Opportunity compliance training.

“It is out of respectful concern for all involved that I must temporarily suspend the participation of all Executive Branch directors, agency heads, and employees as witnesses in hearings before” the House, the governor wrote in his Apr. 06 letter to Savali.

Lemanu said it has come to his attention that “these individuals have been subjected to inappropriate and irrelevant questioning during these hearings that may rise to the level of harassment.”

“Unwelcome conduct like irrelevant questioning based on things like race, religion, sex, national origin, or disability is a form of harassment according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC),” Lemanu wrote.

“Harassment becomes unlawful where enduring such conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive,” he pointed out.

According to the governor, the Executive Branch “cannot allow or ignore this type of treatment of its employees. Doing so would make us complicit in the harassment and subject ASG to liability.”

 “To this end,” the governor requested that Savali “consider the members of the House and its staff undergo Equal Employment Opportunity compliance training.”

The governor’s letter is titled, “Suspension of Executive Branch testimony pending EEOC training.”

Meanwhile, the governor had issued an Apr. 06 memorandum suspending Executive Branch cabinet members and employees from testifying in House hearings until further notice. But by Monday this week, during the cabinet meeting, the governor announced the suspension notice was lifted and the issues was resolved after he held a discussion with the House Speaker.

By Monday afternoon the governor issued a new memo saying that the suspension of House testimony had been lifted.