“I have been asking Parliament for some time now to consider a Solicitor General for this reason, especially when conflicts arise that involve the Office of the Attorney General”
The Tautua Party’s Shadow Minister of Works, Levaopolo Talatonu Va’ai, has revived a call he made in Parliament in the not too distant past to establish the position of a Solicitor General.
The holder of the position, according to Levaopolo, will review matters and provide legal advice to the government.
Levaopolo made the point during an interview with the Sunday Samoan.
He backed questions raised by the Associate Minister of Public Enterprises, Papali’i Niko Lee Hang, about the involvement of the Attorney General’s Office in the review of two reports that are highly critical of the government.
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The reports in question are the Officers of Parliament (O.P.C.) Report and the Controller and Chief Auditor’s report concerning issues surrounding the former Finance Minister, Faumuina Tiatia Liuga and the Samoa Land Corporation (S.L.C.).
According to Levaopolo, calls for a Solicitor General – where his or her role will be to review matters that involve the Attorney General.
“The A.G is carrying two responsibilities of being the government adviser and the prosecutor,” Levaopolo said. “He was the adviser to the Board so it is not right for him to review matters that he advised on as a Board member. There is a conflict there.”
The M.P pointed out that it is important for the Attorney General to be independent and that the Office does not contradict its roles.
“I have been asking Parliament for some time now to consider a Solicitor General for this reason, especially when conflicts arise that involve the Office of the Attorney General.”
When the Attorney General’s Office Bill 2012, which sought to exclude the Office of the Attorney General from the “definition of public service,” was tabled by Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi in Parliament, Levaopolo questioned it.
“The Prime Minister says that it’s good to have this bill so that the Attorney General is independent,” he said at the time.
“When I read through the bill, there is a section there that says the legislation is controlled by a Minister or Prime Minister for the office of the Attorney General."
“That means the Attorney General is not independent.”
Levao said Samoa is the only country that appoints one person to do two jobs.
“This is the only country where one person or one lawyer is appointed the Attorney General and the Solicitor General. There are two responsibilities there, the AG’s responsibility is to advise the Cabinet and other arms of government like Parliament and ministries and all that."
“His other responsibility is to prosecute, he is the head of prosecution, so his other duty is to prosecute these members of Government should the need arise.”
Levaopolo said there is a conflict within the AG’s responsibilities. He said other countries have two lawyers one who advises Cabinet and the other who heads prosecution.
Levao said the roles of the Attorney General and Solicitor General are separate.
“Appoint an AG to advise government and enforce the laws,” he said. “That way, he can sit in on Cabinet and Parliament. But then appoint a Solicitor General to head the prosecution, the law office of government."
“The Solicitor General then reports to the Head of State, not the government, the Solicitor General will also act as the monitoring system to monitor government and the Attorney General.”
Last week, Papali’i questioned the reliability of the review of the O.P.C report conducted by the Office of the Attorney General.
“I would have recommended an independent lawyer to conduct the investigation,” he said.
Attorney General, Aumua Ming Leung Wai confirmed the review.
“The review of the O.P.C and Controller and Audit General’s reports is complete and was given to our Prime Minister,” said Aumua. “My office is not at liberty to disclose the content of such review.”
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