Dear Editor,

Re: Tenders Board defends decision 

Every bidder who is a Samoan company has people “inside the circle”. It is impossible not to in a small micro country like Samoa.

The minister here, Peseta, should have divested himself of his shareholding to be “squeaky clean”, but at the end of the day, he is not a director of the company. Shareholders in Samoan companies are usually people who have to pay for the company’s debts or pour money into the company. 

They are very rarely people who actually profit from these companies unless you are one of the big players like the Grey Investment Group, Ah Liki etc.

The main thing is that Peseta is not involved in any way with making tendering decisions. 

Nobody on the Tenders Board should have any connection whatsoever with any companies submitting bids. Peseta did not. 

He works in another part of the government under a different minister. 

As for the other project, the prison project, Treasury refused any extra monies requested, so that company had to make do with the funds already given to them. 

Happily enough they found out they could build a tower within their existing budgets.

PS Jeffrey