Chief Procurement Officer resigns after declaring for office

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — ASG chief procurement officer, Dr. Oreta Mapu Crichton has resigned from her post, and her final day on the job was last Friday. This was announced by Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga at last Friday’s cabinet meeting, and he wished Crichton the best in her future political endeavors.

Crichton, through a paid advertisment officially announced last week Monday her candidacy for American Samoa’s Delegate to the US House of Representative in the Nov. 3 general election.

The governor didn’t immediately announce an acting director for this ASG office, but towards the end of the cabinet meeting, Crichton gave brief departing remarks.

“I wanted to say thank you to each and everyone of you my colleagues for the last 8 years,” she told cabinet directors. “I know that I will be leaving this post a much stronger and better person for all the challenges that I have met.”

She said that she had a chance to “talk, again, with our governor. I call him my boss.”

“And he did what a good boss does. He tried to influence me to think about finishing this journey together. But in my heart and in my mind, I remembered what he told me many, many times and he said — Oreta aua ete fefe e fai au fa’aiuga (or Oreta, don’t be afraid to make your decision),” she said. “So I truly practice that. My heart was broken because I care so much about what we’re doing.”

“And I have always been a team player and wanted to finish this journey together. But I couldn’t resist, and I can’t resist trying to put into practice what I have learned and loved for so many years, and that is to continue to serve, and probably a capacity that I feel most comfortable in, and that is to be a connection and bridge for our people in another capacity,” she said. “Thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart.”

“The last thing that I want to say is, all that we have been doing at Procurement [Office], we have just been trying to do our part to serve, so we can be protected in the ways that we expand our funds,” she concluded.

In response, the governor said Dr. Crichton has “been with us for quite sometime.” Lolo said he believes that American Samoa’s congressional delegation is the “bridge” between the local government and Washington D.C.

“We only exist because of our people,” was Lolo’s advice to the outgoing cabinet director, adding that this is his same advice to all other ASG officials running for public office in the upcoming election.