1 Oct 2008

American Samoa Senate hears details of payments to Arts Festival staff

10:40 am on 1 October 2008

A Senate hearing into the expenses involved in running the Festival of Pacific Arts in American Samoa has revealed employment details for the first time.

The co-chair of the organising board and a marketing officers were both appointed by the board without the positions being advertised.

Our correspondent in Pago Pago says up until now, many people didn't know there were any paid positions:

"A lot of the people that were involved were volunteers. Now the co chair of the festival, Fagafaga Daniel Langkilde, who was also the Chief Financial Officer, he is on the books as earning a salary of US$50,000, for the previous year he earned about US$24,000 so they paid him about $74,000. There is also the marketing person who was paid more than $30,000."

Monica Miller says Senators have expressed disappointment that many businesses have not been paid.

The Festival committee is seeking 300 thousand dollars in supplementary funding from the territorial government.