The Cabinet has approved plans for the Ministry of Public Enterprises to prepare a bill and amendments to align responsibility for sector ministers and shareholding ministers. 

27 state-owned enterprises answer to their responsible Ministers in that sector but are also obligated to submit financial reporting to M.P.E. that monitors their financial compliance. 

Although the M.P.E. was established in 2015 by the former administration there are still grey areas in the legislation that needs to be clarified. 

The Minister of M.P.E., Leatinuu Wayne So’oialo confirmed the Cabinet's approval and recommended preparing proposed legislation to iron out policies and laws for both responsible sector and M.P.E. 

Leatinuu was initially responsible for overseeing M.P.E. together with the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour (M.C.I.L.) and Samoa Land Corporation. 

A recent cabinet reshuffle reassigned the M.C.I.L. portfolio to Minister Leota Laki Sio and moved S.L.C. under the umbrella of the Minister of Natural Resources and Envrionment, Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster. 

Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa told Parliament last month there are two umbrellas that public servants fall under; including the Public Service Commission (PSC) and M.P.E. 

Fiame said the government’s vision is to strengthen the service of entities under the M.P.E. umbrella considering major financial support invested in the entities. 

Leatinuu was asked if the role of the sector minister would not contradict the role of the shareholding minister with S.O.E.s reporting to two ministers. 

He explained it does not contradict and M.P.E. is now taking over the financial monitoring role that was previously under the treasury. 

He said while profit is crucial it is also important to have efficient service provided for the public and the reason why the entities were set up in the first place and operated as companies. 

There are currently six S.O.Es that have been registered as companies which include Polynesian Airline (Samoa Airways), S.L.C., Samoa Post Limited (SPL), Samoa Shipping Corporation (SSC), Samoa Shipping Services (SSS) and Unit Trust of Samoa (UTOS). 

The Minister of M.P.E. said that just because the entities are registered as companies it does not mean that it will be privatised. 

“I believe we won’t reach that stage at this time (privatise), its main goal is to operate as a company and provide efficient service and to provide 35 per cent profit (dividend)  to fund the budget.

“The Government’s vision is to formulate a structure and have the laws in order and its function.” 

Leatinuu added the reshuffle that removed M.C.I.L. and S.L.C. under his portfolio was done because there was a positive outcome and not done for the sake of making changes.