The Chairman of the Samoa Life Assurance Corporation (S.L.A.C.), Tuatagaloa Alfred Schwalger, has been told of a premature end to his contract.

Tuatagaloa, who was moved from the Samoa International Finance Agency (S.I.F.A.) Board of Directors to S.L.A.C. in March this year was scheduled to end his contract in October.

But during an interview with the Samoa Observer, Tuatagaloa said he was informed through an email that his contract had ended on 15 September 2020. That was on Tuesday last week. 

“Obviously what they did is for me to run out my term as Chairman from S.I.F.A. to S.L.A.C,” said Tuatagaloa. 

“I emailed M.P.E. [Ministry of Public Enterprises] on Monday this week to tell me what is happening. There was no reply, so right now I’m sort of waiting on what to do.” 

The Chief Executive Officer of M.P.E., Elita Tooala, was contacted through email on Friday for a comment. She had not responded at press time.  

But asked what he would do now, Tuatagaloa said "fishing and planting bananas." 

“You can’t complain with those ones,” he added. 

Tuatagaloa was the Chairman for S.I.F.A. at the time the Board recommended the reappointment of the former C.E.O., To’oto’oleava Dr. Fana’afi Aiono. The recommendation was not endorsed by Cabinet. They instead terminated To’oto’oaleava’s services. 

In the aftermath, Tuatagaloa was moved to S.L.A.C. to serve out the remainder of his Chairmanship. 

At the time, he said he was only informed through a letter that he had been moved without an explanation.

Tuatagaloa was a former General Manager of the Development Bank of Samoa in 1991 before he resigned to pursue a career as a fishing charter operator.