Member of parliament for Fa'asalele'aga No.5 Peseta Vaifou Tevaga raised concerns in parliament about an estate that belongs to his family and hasn't been settled because of lapses in the Public Trust Act.

The MP's anxiety was put through to the Chairman of the Standing Orders, Electoral, Petition and Constitutional Offices Committee for consideration. He said his family has been going through this problem for more than 40 years now.

Peseta said his family wants to settle a land (estate) and give it out to the descendants of the family through a will by the owners of the estate but it's taking too long because of some conditions the Public Trust Office told them to clarify.

"Our matter went through a lot of ministers who were taking over the ministry in the past years and still a solution hasn't been made," Peseta said.

He told Parliament that there is only one owner of the land is alive but very old. He said this is why his family is keen to come up with a solution for their estate.

Those former ministers include the current Member of Parliament for Si'umu constituency, Tu'u'u Anasi'i Leota who confirmed that the issue about the estate of Peseta's family.

Tu'u'u claimed that the only solution to this matter is for the minister to reconsider some amendments of the Act so that the families will make it easier to settle wills or estates.

This was the same remarks echoed by Opposition Leader Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

He said a lot of families were going through difficulties trying to settle ownership of an estate because the people the will was made for were not in Samoa.

Tuilaepa believes that the minister and the government should look into these amendments, so disagreements between families over their estates would be avoided.

In responding to the issues raised by the MPs, the Minister for Public Trust who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, Tuala Tevaga Ponifasio acknowledged the concerns.

Tuala said these are all important concerns and advised the Office of Public Trust to refer the report to the Law Reform Commission to consider amendments to the Public Trust Act.

He said this is not a new problem faced by families in Samoa awaiting settlement of their assets and this should be resolved through amendments to the act.

The Speaker of Parliament, Papalii Li'o Ta'eu Masipa'u also thanked Peseta for raising the issue which will assist with the amendments the ministry is considering.