Thread: Tsunami aid fraud? Samoa accused

Wave of controversy over PM tsunami interview

Last updated 05:00 31/10/2010

A stoush has broken out between TV presenter John Campbell and Samoa's prime minister, with lawyers hired and name-calling echoing across the Pacific.

The Campbell Live frontman travelled to Samoa last week to interview Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi on Wednesday.

But that 10-minute interview, bizarrely negotiated – at the Samoan government's request – through Kiwi law firm Chapman Tripp, flopped.

The interview followed an item on Campbell's show last month in which the TV host said $59.4 million of foreign aid had been given to the Samoan government following the devastating September 2009 tsunami, but evidence of reconstruction was scarce.

The Samoan administration reacted angrily to the item, filing a Broadcasting Standards Authority complaint claiming the Campbell Live item was "inaccurate, misleading and unfair".

Campbell hit back by saying he would be willing to fly back to Apia to give Malielegaoi an opportunity to tell New Zealanders how his government had spent the relief donations. The prime minister agreed to the interview, even sending Campbell Live a personal letter outlining a schedule of the remedied villages he would take Campbell to.

But Campbell told the Star-Times last night that Malielegaoi cancelled the interview at the last minute "without any explanation".

The Samoa Observer featured a front page story with Campbell branding Malielegaoi a "coward" for bailing out of his interview commitment.

Malielegaoi reacted by accusing Campbell of bullying the government into a rushed interview.

Not so, said Campbell – he just wanted answers. "The people who embark on personal attacks are those who do not want to defend the facts," he said.

Campbell said it was strange that a prime minister would use a foreign law firm to arrange a media interview. "In my 21 years of journalism, I've never seen anything like it."

Although the interview did not go ahead, Campbell said he tracked Malielegaoi down to an island restaurant last week. "He was not overwhelmingly pleased to see me."

Campbell questioned whether the New Zealand government had done enough to seek answers on how its donations had been spent. His show had made an Official Information Act request for a comprehensive breakdown of how the money was spent, but been provided nothing.

Speaking from Vietnam last night, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said while he did not want to get involved in what "is a formal broadcasting complaint matter", he was "comfortable" and "satisfied" with how the aid had been spent in Samoa.

"Broadly speaking, our people have been very comfortable with the assurances they have been given [by the Samoan government] and what they have seen on the ground," McCully said.

"My own visit with a group of parliamentarians recently gave us an opportunity to see for ourselves and we were satisfied." McCully did not have the paperwork on hand to justify how the funds were allocated in Samoa.

Currency: NZ59.4m = 1,359,125,536 Thai baht

Campbell calls Samoan PM a coward
Rebecca Lewis
Sunday Oct 31, 2010

TV3's John Campbell has become embroiled in a public dust-up with Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi over the whereabouts of millions of dollars of tsunami aid.

Campbell says Malielegaoi was "utterly cowardly" in refusing to front for a pre-arranged interview to discuss the relief aid.

Several weeks ago Campbell Live screened an item which alleged $58.7 million earmarked for relief had been misappropriated while many people still had no electricity or water.

The allegations drew sharp criticism from Malielegaoi, who said the report was stupid and that Campbell had been misinformed about where money was being spent in Samoa.

Campbell and a film crew went to Samoa on Monday to follow up the news item.

Campbell said Malielegaoi had asked to tell his side of the story but Campbell said on Tuesday Malielegaoi pulled out of the interview arranged for Wednesday with no explanation.

"We prepped really hard. We went up there on Labour Day Monday ready to go with the Prime Minister, so he could say anything he wanted," said Campbell.

"Around 6pm the night before he just said he wasn't going to do it and gave us no reason at all. I tracked him down at a restaurant in Apia.

"I door-stopped him on the way out, and he still couldn't give me a reason.

"It was cowardly for him to slag us off behind our backs for weeks and demand the right to have his say, then pull out. It's utterly cowardly of him."

Malielegaoi told the Samoa Observer newspaper he was adamant the meeting with Campbell was always scheduled for November 4, not the week the crew went to Samoa.

He also told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat programme Samoa had not received all the money promised in the aftermath of the tsunami.

He said about $104 million had been pledged but only around $19.5 million had been received.

Campbell said locals had asked him to "dig deeper" about the money.

A statement last night from the Office of the Prime Minister of Samoa said it was "disappointing to have this issue portrayed as a soap opera".

nzherald.co.nz

Tsunami aid rort claim 'uninformed' says Samoa PM
Geraldine Coutts
Tue, 19 Oct 2010


Samoa's PM Tuilaepa Sailele says television reports from NZ of aid misappropriation are 'stupid' and 'uninformed'.
[Dept of Prime Minister and Cabinet]

Samoa's prime minister has described as "stupid" allegations by a New Zealand journalist that up to $US45 million of tsunami reconstruction funds have been misappropriated.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program Samoa has not received the vast majority of aid promised in the aftermath of the August 2009 tsunami - receiving around $15 million so far.

In all, about $80 million was pledged to help rebuild in the aftermath of the August 2009 tsunami.

The Tautua Samoa Party has accused the government of not using the money it has received to help tsunami victims, and New Zealand journalist John Campbell from TV3 suggests that up to $45 million has been misappropriated while hundreds are left without running water or electricity.

Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa says the reporter was looking in all the wrong places.

"[He] came in, spent all his time talking to the [Samoa] Observer newspaper, and then in his own words spent much time on the coast. People have moved inland. And therefore he could not have seen what has taken place," he said.

The prime minister says TV3's Mr Campbell was provided by the deputy prime minister the full report dated September detailing the outlay for tsunami recovery, but failed to acknowledge forward budgeting for the next three years.

He says the reporter also failed to follow up with key people including government officials directly involved in dispersing the funds, suggesting that the government has provided far more funding than that pledged thusfar in rebuilding efforts.

"All the funds that have been received from overseas, that have been pledged, came to 35 million tala and we have spent already up to end of August 68.73 million tala, local currency. Which means that we expended out of our own funds 33 million," he said.

The tsunami claimed 143 lives in Samoa, while 46 others died in American Samoa and Tonga.

radioaustralianews.net.au

Samoa is as corrupt as . . . well, a corrupt country.
Hardly a democracy, and I'd believe a lot of the aid money will have been siphoned off to government officials (now this is sounding familiar isn't it?)
They've tried the tax haven option, then selling passports to anyone who could afford them . . . fat cats at the top (and I do mean fat)

This tsunami thing is a nice little money earner...

CNN: Am. Samoa Had Funds For Tsunami System - Honolulu News Story - KITV Honolulu

I wonder who they will hit up next.... the EU probably.

Easy to resolve, stop arguing and produce the books.

Samoans are thick as pigshit in my experience.

Smarter than Kiwis it seems.

Originally Posted by keda

Easy to resolve, stop arguing and produce the books.

books. ROFL

Originally Posted by Thormaturge

Originally Posted by keda

Easy to resolve, stop arguing and produce the books.

books. ROFL

Which ones, the ones for the offshore bank accounts, or the ones with info on how to rip off dumb westerners?

Originally Posted by genghis61

Samoa is as corrupt as . . . well, a corrupt country.
Hardly a democracy, and I'd believe a lot of the aid money will have been siphoned off to government officials (now this is sounding familiar isn't it?)
They've tried the tax haven option, then selling passports to anyone who could afford them . . . fat cats at the top (and I do mean fat)

FOBBY cvnts. Revolves around a chiefdom system. Never, ever trust a fvcking Samoan. Their lovely collective and cooperative existence was splendid one hundred years....enter the twined Western thought. Contradictory in the making.