11 Sep 2015

Text book seller wants American Samoa debt paid

6:07 pm on 11 September 2015

The director of education in American Samoa, Vaitinasa Dr. Salu Hunkin Finau, has confirmed a school textbooks vendor is withholding all orders for American Samoa until old debts have been paid off.

Vaitinasa says these are debts from a few years ago and a representative from the company is arriving next week for meetings with Department to discuss them.

She says their indications are the debt is about $US80,000, not the more than $US100,000 claimed by the company.

Vaitinasa says the lack of text books is not a major problem, with teachers more and more relying on computers and other resources.

There's $US877,500 in the Department's proposed 2016 annual budget for text books.