Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Audit of American Samoa Homeland Security grants questions spending

Posted at 07:38 on 12 March, 2007 UTC

An audit of homeland security grants for American Samoa from 2002 to 2004 has questioned the spending of over 1.7 million US dollars charged to the grants.

The audit report was carried out by the Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Homeland Security.

It says the questioned costs relate to ineligible, unallowable, or unsupported equipment purchases and administrative expenses.

It also relates to unallowable or unsupported training and exercise costs.

The report says the territorial government’s strategic plans were fundamentally flawed, failing to sufficiently identify deficiencies in equipment and training needs.

And it has also highlighted problems with the immigration computer system used to identify individuals entering and departing American Samoa.

The audit report said the system does not provide interagency coordination regarding weapons of mass destruction response operations or provide chemical or biological agent detection capacity.