In response to the news item 'Police impacted by SROS delay'

Letters to the Editor

In response to the Samoa Observer news item titled "Police impacted by SROS delay". The Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS) feels that it was unfairly accused of impacting and causing delays to the Ministry of Police's work.

SROS has always provided its assistance and prioritised requests from the Ministry of Police, and does so with confidence, capacity, and competency to provide these services.

Since 2011 to the present, SROS services to the Ministry of Police is instituted by a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The said MOU utilises SROS's testing laboratories to perform confirmatory and purity analyses for narcotics or controlled drugs.

In the past, these narcotic tests were outsourced to overseas testing laboratories by the Ministry of Police for confirmation which was costly. Now, these tests are carried out by SROS and continue to do so.

The benefits of our services to the Ministry of Police are as follows:

1. Cost-savings: as mentioned before, it is very costly to send samples overseas to be tested.

2. Time-consuming: The turnaround time when samples were sent overseas takes months, it is now done within two weeks.

3. Assistance to the Ministry of Justice: assists court proceedings in providing prompt and accurate test results for Police evidence in a timely manner.

With the most recent request by the Ministry of Police with regards to the breathalyser machines earlier this year, SROS is progressing despite having limited capacity and equipment at the time of this request.

We do confirm the sourcing of the required equipment for the calibration of breathalyser units has been approved and is en route to Samoa from Canberra, Australia.

The Ministry of Police is fully aware as they are included in the correspondences between the SROS and the Australian Federal Police who are funding the equipment.

The Molecular Division will be housed at the old MedCen Building acquired by SROS in 2022. It is a separate division and focuses on genetics and genomics diagnostics tests and research. Their mandated works are unrelated to that of the Ministry of Police.

Ma le fa'aaloalo tele,