American Samoa's Governor, Lolo Matalasi Moliga, has told his departmental directors to scrutinise their budgets to ensure they don't overspend by the end of the fiscal year.
The impact of Washington's latest budget crisis is trickling down to American Samoa and the governor has warned the directors that if Congress does not agree on a stopgap measure by later this week, their departments will face an additional five percent cut on top of the 10 percent reductions already in place.
Lolo says government travel has been curtailed and he told the department leaders to contain their spending.
"My suggestion - take your budget home, take it with you to church, pray over it, and find a way that you will stay within your limits at the end of the fiscal year. I am giving you that privilege to shift things around."
