The Ministry of Health will engage a new consultant to review the National Alcohol Policy and formulate a new one after the Cabinet opted to end a consultancy firm's contract. 

The decision of the Cabinet was confirmed by the Health Director General, Aiono Dr. Alec Ekeroma in response to questions from the Samoa Observer on the issue. 

He said the ministry has the report from the consultations undertaken by local firm Fiber A Consultancy, which was initially appointed to carry out the review and formulate a new policy. 

"We have the report and it's up to a certain point," said Aiono. "All the consultations have been completed and we will use that, we are not going to start from the beginning.

"We will use what we have and look to appoint another person to complete it. We haven't started looking for a new consultant, the issue is still kind of hot at the moment and we do not want to touch it. We will wait until it cools down a bit then we will resuscitate it again."

Aiono also clarified that the ministry is yet to discuss the possibility of an internal investigation, to be held in conjunction with the Public Service Commission (P.S.C.) into how the tender contract was awarded.

The P.S.C. was tasked to investigate the process that led to the appointment of the private consultancy firm made up of former top bureaucrats, who previously worked for the Samoa government. 

This newspaper understands that a report from the P.S.C. was presented to the Cabinet with recommendations and that the Cabinet has asked the P.S.C. to prepare another report on the fifth recommendation that they made in their report. 

This includes having a detailed report on the processes that were undertaken by the health officials, which led to the appointment of the private consulting firm, without the knowledge of Aiono and the Health Minister, Valasi Tafito Selesele.

The P.S.C. was tasked to investigate how the firm won a contract from the Suva-based Pacific Community (S.P.C.) to review the ministry's current National Alcohol Policy. 

According to Valasi, the Fiber-A Consultancy firm comprised the former C.E.O. for the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development (M.W.C.S.D.) as well as the former attorney general, former commissioner for customs and the C.E.O. for Samoa Housing Corporation. The main contact was the former C.E.O. for M.W.C.S.D. Afamasaga Faauiga Palepue-Mulitalo. 

Attempts by the Samoa Observer to get background information on the company, its establishment, and its members were unsuccessful. Checks of the company registry administered by Samoa's Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour (M.C.I.L.) also came back unsuccessful. 

Concerns about the engagement of the private firm were raised during a meeting of the Cabinet's Development Committee on 15 June 2023, where Aiono was asked why the M.O.H. had a separate National Alcohol Policy when the country's Liquor Board sits within the Ministry of Customs and Revenue.

The list of documents needed for submission to the Cabinet included a chronological order leading up to the current consultations on the National Alcohol Policy, communications between the M.O.H. and S.P.C. as well as the evaluation report and the costs, plus the process used by the ministry to appoint the technical advisors for the formulation of the alcohol policy and the signed contract.