The previous week the Samoa Observer published an editorial that called for the sacking of Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour (MCIL) staff who approved an illegal flight of seasonal workers to New Zealand.

Our position has not changed after the publishing of that editorial (Heads should roll at the MCIL over illegal flight) in the Sunday 22 January 2023 edition of the Sunday Samoan. Someone should be held accountable – to make it clear to public servants that blatant breaches of the law, including Samoa Government policy will not be tolerated, and is a sackable offence that could also lead to criminal proceedings.

Ten days after the editorial’s publishing, word comes through that the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour (MCIL), Pulotu Lyndon Chu Ling and the Acting Assistance CEO of the Ministry's Labour Export Programme Division, Tofilau Matthew have been suspended.

The decision to suspend the two top bureaucrats within the Ministry was made by the Cabinet in a special meeting on Monday, according to a story published by the Samoa Observer.

The Government’s Press Secretariat confirmed the top officials’ suspension in a statement released to the media on Tuesday morning.

"This decision has been made to allow the Public Service Commission to conduct an investigation into the Division of the MCIL that leads and coordinates Samoa’s Labour Employment Export Programme," the statement reads. 

"Cabinet has approved the suspension of the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour – Pulotu Lyndon Chu Ling, and the Acting Assistant CEO of the Labour Employment Export Programme (LEEP) Division – Tofilau Matthew Alesana.

"Apropos requirements of the Public Service Act 2004 and relevant government policies, the Public Service Commission will conduct the investigation and report to Cabinet urgently for its final consideration."

The suspension of the two senior officials doesn’t come as a surprise and in fact had to happen, if the relevant authorities within the Government are to get to the bottom of the unauthorised flights saga of seasonal workers travelling to New Zealand.

Ultimately, the Labour Export Programme Division is housed under the Ministry, and Pulotu as the CEO of the Ministry had lost complete control when the first group of 17 seasonal workers flew out in August last year. Five months later in early January 2023 another 18 took flight, again headed to New Zealand and again in defiance of a temporary ban imposed by the Cabinet. 

We commend the Cabinet for convening a special meeting on Monday to address this issue, resulting in the suspensions of Pulotu and Tofilau. That decision needed to be made to restore the integrity of the Samoa Government’s systems and processes, which more importantly also includes Cabinet directives.

With the immediate suspension of the duo – we expect the internal processes within the MCIL to now take their course and go up another gear – to ascertain how the two unauthorised flights of seasonal workers in August 2022 and January 2023 occurred, and whether loopholes in the Ministry’s systems enabled officials to capitalise on them to approve the illegal flights.

The continued employment of Pulotu and Tofilau by the Ministry, we believe, should be based on how they responded to the first illegal flight in August last year and if they put in place mechanisms to ensure it didn’t reoccur. Obviously, the two top bureaucrats didn’t address the issue when it first surfaced, because five months after the first illegal flight there was another one.

So what guarantee can the suspended CEO and his ACEO give to the people of Samoa that the illegal flights, which have already occurred on two separate occasions under their watch, will not be repeated if their suspensions are lifted and they are reinstated to their substantive positions in the Ministry?

Unfortunately, we are clutching at straws on this issue, and the Cabinet should be mindful of the long-term effects of its decision on the public service machinery when it revisits the issue to decide Pulotu and Tofilau’s future.

The Cabinet’s decision – when it reaches that stage of the senior public servants’ disciplinary process – should place an emphasis on local bureaucrats upholding the values of honesty, impartiality, service, respect, transparency, and accountability as prescribed by the Public Service Commission. 

On its part, the public also expects the Cabinet to be impartial and objective, when it sits to decide the future of the two public servants, and not be swayed by emotion or even politics. 

In this instance it is time for the Cabinet to utilise the two strikes you're out policy, so all public servants acknowledge that everyone including those in Government CEO positions, are dispensable and not above the law.