Governor institutes monthly budget and revenue collections meeting

Pago Pago, AMERICA SAMOA — Gov. Lemanu P. S Mauga has set a new policy requiring a monthly meeting on budget analysis and revenue collections on the second Thursday of every month. This comes as the government starts the new fiscal year 2024 — which commenced on Oct. 1 this year.

The monthly budget meeting is outlined in the governor’s Oct. 5 memorandum to the ASG Treasurer, Budget and Planning Office director and the Port Administration director.

Prior to each meeting, the governor requested specific financial reports that are to be provided to his office by Treasury and Budget Office at least 48 hours prior to the meeting each month, according to the memo.

From the ASG Treasury Department, the governor requested a report on revenue collection to include:

•  amounts collected in the prior month,

•  amounts collected year to date,

•  an analysis of revenue collection performance as compared to the prior year both monthly and year to date, and;

•  an analysis of revenue collection performance when compared to the current budget year revenue projections.

For the Budget Office, its report should focus on budget expenditures to include:

•  amounts approved for expenditure in the prior month,

•  amounts approved for expenditure year to date,

•  an analysis of budget expenditure as compared to the prior year both monthly and year to date, and;

•  an analysis of budget expenditures compared to the current appropriated budget.

“It is important to the function of good government that the revenue collections and budget expenditures are monitored closely throughout the fiscal year,” Lemanu said in the memo. “This monthly meeting is essential to review revenue collections and assess budget expenditures for the prior month and the year to date.

“As we have just entered a new fiscal year, I am instituting a new standing monthly meeting with the Treasurer, Budget Director, Director of Port Administration, Tax Manager, and Chief of Customs on the second Thursday of each month at 9:00 a.m,” the governor pointed out.

There was no information or explanation from the Governor’s Office for the main reason the governor is implementing this new policy, which two lawmakers who have seen the memo say — it’s a great move by the Administration— but ask why institute this policy when the government has reported revenue surpluses in the last three fiscal years and the Lemanu Administration is at its third-year of overseeing ASG?

Another lawmaker told Samoa News that he believes that such information on this new policy should have been shared by ASG officials, especially the Treasurer and representatives of the Governor’s Office, when the Fono reviewed the ASG’s budget for FY 2024 last month so that questions could be asked during the public budget hearings.