14 Oct 2002

Questions raised over orders for school lunch programme in American Samoa

12:02 pm on 14 October 2002

Rib eye steak will soon be on the menu in local schools in American Samoa.

The container of steaks was ordered by the government directly from the supplier instead of using a local vendor who had bid to supply the frozen food.

The local business was only informed after the container had arrived that the tender process had been cancelled in favour of direct ordering.

However the government appears to have paid fifty thousand US dollars more for the meat supplied direct from the US that it would have done using the bid supplied by the local vendor.

The decision to cancel the tender process was made after officials attended a food show put on by the US supplier