The residents of Fagaloa welcomed road works on the eve of the by-election but say the less than 100 meters of road maintenance work doesn’t cover half of Sauano. 

The road rehabilitation works in the sub-village of Sauano began last month with about 100 meters of the road already being sealed with tar. The roadwork runs from uphill Sauano past the church building and stops after the cement. 

However, a Sauano resident told Samoa Observer they are not sure why the roadworks stopped where they did when it didn’t cover most of their village. 

He said the first time their road was sealed was during Tupua Tamasese's administration when he occupied the seat from the Atua district. 

"As you can see this is the only part of our road that's being sealed," said the resident. "We all know this was conveniently done just before the by-elections and I do hope they will return to complete the whole road if they really mean well and intentions are true.

“The rest of the road going down there is really bad and is not covered in the work they did.”  

The resident also took issue with the Land Transport Authority (L.T.A.) posting photos of the roadworks on their Facebook page and said the project site was in Fagaloa when it wasn’t. 

He said the areas where the photos were taken and uploaded to social media are in Falefa and not Fagaloa. 

“We are not all in the dark, we live here and know our area,” he said. “That long stretch of the road from the start where the photos were taken is Falefa…this is Fagaloa and this is the only part of our road that is tar sealed.”

When you cross the bridge from Falefa Fall there has been a substantial road works in that area all the way up to a sub-village of Falefa called Ali.

A resident of Ali said many people mistake their village for Fagaloa because people drive through their village to get to Fagaloa. 

However, he said, he didn't understand why the roadworks that started in Falefa-uta stopped in the middle and continued in Fagaloa leaving the middle area between the villages without without a maintained road. 

In response to questions from the Samoa Observer, L.T.A. Chief Executive Officer, Galumalemana Titi Schwalger said the roadworks at Fagaloa are being done under road routine maintenance contracts, which were tendered and have complied with the Government's procurement guidelines. 

"The current road works at Fagaloa are valued at approximately SAT$1 million," she said. "The road routine maintenance contract which included the current road works at Fagaloa started last year."   

According to Ministry of Finance records on the award of the tender, the rehabilitation of the Fagaloa Bay Road in Sauano was approved on 6 April 2023 and implemented by the L.T.A. The winning bid was submitted by Lucky Construction Ltd for a contract valued at SAT$214,785.00 according to M.O.F. records.