House hearing on TALOFAPass postponed

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The House hearing scheduled for last Thursday to discuss the issue of the TALOFAPass was postponed until the main witness returns on island.

Last week, Faipule Andra Tereise Samoa informed representatives that the hearing was postponed until Medicaid Director, Sandra King Young returns home.

Samoa said she understands the importance of this hearing but they cannot proceed with the hearing unless the main witness is on island.

Vice Speaker of the House, Fetu Fetui Jr said he’s very disappointed with the issue of TALOFAPass and he wants the Administration to discontinue it.

Fetu said TALOFAPass literally serves no purpose whatsoever and is a waste of time. He said passengers are unable to board flights home at the very last minute with no way to contact a customer service representative.

He told Samoa that he wants to make sure the hearing is called once King Young arrives on island.

Speaker Savali Talavou Ale echoed Fetu’s statement. He advised Samoa to follow up with the main witness and make sure to set a hearing date once she arrives on island. He said faipule and the community are very concerned about this issue and they need an answer.

BACKGROUND

This is not the first time this issue has been discussed in the House Chamber.

Last March, King Young was also questioned by representatives about the TALOFAPass project and her role in the project. The hearing was called after faipule received a lot of complaints from travelers about TALOFAPass and how frustrated they were about the system.

During that hearing, King Young explained that the system is used to register travelers coming into the territory and to collect their health and immigration data, as well as help with the contact-tracing of people with COVID-19.

She felt the lack of awareness has led to misinformation and a malicious character assassination against herself.

“I wanted to speak directly to these malicious allegations against me and my role in the TP project.

“I did not start this project alone by myself, this is a project and a job that we all did collectively with my colleague here, Dir. Motusa T. Nua as well as several other agencies and I can expressly say to you and honestly I’m a very transparent person and sometimes provide too much details, but being that my character has been assassinated with this project I can expressly say to you that neither I nor any member of my family or our businesses by anyway are affiliated or receive any financial benefit from this project,” King Young stated at the time.