Oversight office reports on how ARPA funds are being allocated

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Just over $23 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds have been budgeted for American Samoa’s vaccination program, repatriation, along with the Safe Travels American Samoa website design, development and deployment, according to the American Samoa Recovery Plan Performance Report.

ASG’s American Rescue Plan Act Oversight Office publicly released the report Monday evening, and it provides the latest update data and information on ARPA funding allocation to various projects/programs — such as health, economy, and broadband for American Samoa and how the territory will be using the $479 million allocated to ASG under the federal ARPA law.

Several questions have been raised from the community, including some lawmakers, on the costs for the vaccination program, repatriation and the new Safe Travels web-system, called “Talofa Pass” for which the contract was awarded Aug. 19th to Honolulu-based DataHouse Consulting, Inc., for $6,35 million — covering a period of 3 years.

VACCINATION PROGRAM

According to the performance report, $5 million has been allocated for the vaccination program and involves several ASG agencies including the Governor’s Office and Health Department and the Office of Samoan Affairs.

The report describes what the task force had said in previous press releases — that the vaccination program is aimed to get 80% and more of the local population vaccinated with the latest incentive to boost the vaccination rate being a $100 award per dose/shot.

REPATRIATION

Four ASG agencies are involved with the repatriation program, which is allocated $10 million.

According to the project description, ASG since, February this year began, its repatriation program to safely bring home stranded residents and permit much needed business, medical and military personnel to travel to the territory. 

It says that the ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) will be utilized to continue this program effective after March 3rd.

“The repatriation program will support our efforts to continue the last phase of the plan and to make preparations to prepare American Samoa to reopen its borders,” it says. “The repatriation program will fund quarantine, enforcement, medical, transportation, testing and monitoring and other related expenses to adhere to our established mitigation and prevention protocols to keep COVID-19 virus outside of the territory.”

SAFE TRAVELS

The performance report states that $8.1 million is allocated for the Safe Travels web-system project, which is a “critical component of the American Samoa Government’s (ASG) plans to safely reopen its borders.”

The project description states that the Safe Travels website will provide a single solution for the multiple ASG departments tasked to safeguard the territory during the next phase of reopening its borders to collect and track travelers’ pertinent information regarding vaccinations and COVID-19 test results.

The Safe Travels website will be a multi-year contract to ensure American Samoa maintains the ability to track travelers into the territory. The Safe Travels program will allow for vaccination data collection, contact tracing and a single site for ease of use by travelers and government administration and oversight to ensure all safety protocols are followed.

The ARPA Oversight Office performance report was publicly released on the ASG website.