Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Additional pay and incentives for Health Department employees during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the importance of effective employee training were two separate issues raised by the Territorial Audit Office in its Performance Audit report of the more than $14 million in federal CARES Act funding awarded to DoH during the COVID pandemic.
These issues were documented under the report’s “Other Comments” section and Samoa News covers in this final report these TAO concerns, as some ASG employees — who are not with DoH — as well as three lawmakers who have read the TAO report raised concerns over additional pay and bonuses especially as it appears — from the TAO report — that the funding source was local revenue.
ADDITIONAL PAY/ INCENTIVES
“During audit review, we came across employee additional pays and incentives which were part of the payroll processes,” said TAO, noting that these extra payments were sourced from the ASG general fund.
“We understand the department's employees have worked hard during the pandemic to provide essential services to the community; in some cases at considerable risk to their health and safety,” TAO points out. “And the department rewards those employees with incentives applied after the fact.”
TAO said it viewed that “payment of such additional reward has significance since the employee had already been paid for the work performed and therefore it was improper to use public funds to pay that employee a second time in the form of an additional after-the-fact payment.”
“We are of the view that incentives and bonuses should be provided only for meeting established performance standards or goals that exceeded normal employment requirements,” according to TAO.
The TAO auditors suggested that: “Such incentives and bonuses also should be structured as a component of the compensation in return for which employees provide their services in such a way that employees have an expectation of earning the incentives or bonuses when they are performing their work.”
EMPLOYEE TRAINING
According to TAO, its audit examination indicates that the department needs to align with changes in the knowledge and skills and one of the best ways to enhance knowledge and skills is through training.
“Training is very important because it represents a good opportunity to grow their knowledge base and improve their job skills to become more effective in the workplace,” the auditors said. “Despite the cost of training employees, the return on investment is immense if it is consistent.”
“The aforementioned weaknesses such as poor record filing, adequate maintenance and complete documentation are fundamental issues that highlight the need for effective employee training,” TAO points out.
In its recommendation, TAO noted that there are several benefits that derived from adequate organizing of employee trainings such as:
• Increased productivity and performance
• Uniformity of work processes
• Reduced wastage and supervision
• Improved organizational structure
• Boosted morale
• Improved knowledge of policies and goals
• Better workplace environment
DoH management responded that it concurs with the finding and recommendation.
The full detailed 60-page performance report on TAO online (https://www.asgaudit.com).
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