Editor,

Norah Mallany calls it the way Inspector General's would, based on evidences at hand. Mokofisi, just couldn't realize that he got on a broken wagon, and never made it out of the dark. Siaosi Fatani is having a tough time making sense out of all of this because there is no-sense in it especially after Mr. Senituli muddied the water with defensive non-essentials avoiding the main issue.

It would have made more sense and cut out a lot of non-sense if Senituli's response to Mallaney included in bold letters that there is Government of Tonga Procurement Law and Rules. This is in writing and is available to the public.

It would be to his credit if he had added that this Procurement Rule Book is specific on Procurement Organization to include officers; qualifications, duties, authorities, responsibilities and well established Chain of Command. Mr. Senituli would emphasize the sections and chapters of the Procurement Rules that deals with Procurement of Goods and Services, sole source contracts, emergency procurement: conditions of use, proper documentation, required board decisions and much more. There is a section on Ethical Conduct Standards, Conflict of Interests, and so on.

Mallany reports as if there is no or a lack of proper formal procurement procedures in place in Tonga government thus the mess with the procurement of the Ashika. Senituli seems to understandably, disagree.

All we need now is for the government to announce that there is indeed a Procurement Law and Rules in writing as is followed by every government agencies. However, in the case of the Ashika, the Procurement Law and Rules were severely compromised or not followed at all.

I hope this will make sense to Fatani and will ease Chan concern of repeating the problem in the future.

By the way, is there a Government of Tonga Procurement Law and Rules? Is it in writing? Is it being followed?

Mafi 'o Amerika Samoa