“THE FONO MUST ACT”

Dear Editor, I write as a retiree and longtime beneficiary of the American Samoa Government Employees Retirement Fund — and as someone who served the people of American Samoa for many years in education and public life. I write not in anger, but in the firm conviction that a serious wrong is being allowed to continue in silence. The Retirement Fund exists for one essential purpose: to honor the commitment made to those of us who dedicated our working lives to public service. Yet as I follow the news surrounding ASGERF, I observe that nearly all public attention is directed toward the government’s debt to the Fund, toward trustee disputes, and toward questions of solvency. These are legitimate concerns. But largely absent from the conversation is the welfare of the very people the Fund was created to serve — the retirees themselves. The facts deserve to be stated plainly. The Fund is currently only 52% funded. The American Samoa Government owes millions in unpaid employer and employee contributions — money that was deducted from workers’ paychecks and never remitted to the Fund. Governance of the Board has been contested in the High Court. In the midst of all this institutional turbulence, retirees have gone six years — since 2019 — without a single cost-of-living adjustment to their monthly benefits. Six years. While food prices, utilities, healthcare, and transportation costs have all steadily climbed, the Board has remained silent on the needs of the very people it was appointed to protect. This silence is difficult to explain as anything other than apathy. A board entrusted with the welfare of retirees should not need to be reminded that inflation is real, that fixed incomes shrink in purchasing power every year, and that the men and women who gave their careers to public service deserve better than to be an afterthought. When governance battles and government debt consume all the Board’s attention while beneficiaries grow quietly poorer, something has gone deeply wrong with the Fund’s priorities. Meanwhile, Social Security recipients on the U.S. mainland received a 2.8% cost-of- living adjustment for 2026, tied to the Consumer Price Index. Federal retirees received similar adjustments. Our retirees in American Samoa — who often have fewer alternative sources of income and limited ability to re-enter the workforce — have received nothing comparable in six years. I am therefore calling on the Fono, the Governor’s office, and the ASGERF Board of Trustees to take the following reasonable and just step: establish an annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment for retiree benefits, indexed to the Consumer Price Index, consistent with the mechanism long used by Social Security. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the American Samoa Code was amended in 2011 to remove the statutory requirement for COLA adjustments — leaving retirees entirely dependent on the goodwill and attentiveness of a Board that has demonstrated neither. Given the Board’s six years of inaction, I respectfully submit that the time has come for the Fono to revisit that amendment and reinstate the legal requirement for annual cost-of-living adjustments in the retirement statute. Retirees should not have to beg for what the law once guaranteed them. Restoring that protection would remove the matter from the realm of Board discretion and place it where it belongs — as a right, not a favor. The Fund faces real challenges. I understand that. But solvency and fairness to retirees are not mutually exclusive goals — they must be pursued together. A Fund that stabilizes its finances while leaving its beneficiaries behind has lost sight of its reason for existing. I respectfully invite other retirees, their families, and the broader community to add their voices to this call. The Fono will act when the people speak clearly and together. Ma le Ava e Tatau ai, Filemoni Lauilefue ASG Retiree Section: Opinion Tags: letter to the editor
2026-03-24 17:39:50