PALAU\u2014Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular and International Affairs Doug Domenech joined by U.S. Ambassador to Palau Amy Hyatt, and Office of Insular Affairs Director Nik Pula recently met with Palau President Tommy E. Remengesau, launching his official visit to Palau. During their meeting the Assistant Secretary signed over a technical assistance grant for $323,333, an amount requested by the Government of Palau to upgrade record-keeping and management systems for treasury, customs, personnel, and budget operations in the Palau Government. <\/p>\n
\u201cInterior Secretary Ryan Zinke and I are pleased to provide Palau with this technical assistance grant towards improvement of finance operations for the Government of Palau,\u201d said Assistant Secretary Domenech. It is long overdue to facilitate Palau\u2019s move from antiquated micro-fiche records to digital recordkeeping and archiving.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Tommy E. Remengesau and I are grateful for this technical assistance grant from the U.S. Government, which is sure to significantly improve the national government\u2019s recordkeeping system,\u201d said Palau Finance Minister Elbuchel Sadang. \u201cThis project will not only help our government in addressing its digitization and public accessibility needs, but the system upgrade will also certainly improve the Ministry of Finance\u2019s document reproduction quality. Additionally, it will allow new features of digital media, including indexing, that will allow more efficient retrieval and search capabilities,\u201d Minister Sadang continued.<\/p>\n
Funding will be used to procure a new document archiving system with new hardware and software, and an option to outsource archiving of historical data. System acquisition, including on-site installation and training, is expected to take six months and full-system utilization is anticipated next year. Funding was provided through the Office of Insular Affairs\u2019 Technical Assistance Program.<\/p>\n
The Assistant Secretary, Insular and International Affairs, and the Office of Insular Affairs carry out the Secretary of the Interior\u2019s responsibilities for the U.S. territories of Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Additionally, OIA administers and oversees Federal assistance under the Compacts of Free Association to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. OIA supports the Secretary’s mission of Fulfilling Trust and Insular Responsibilities through balancing efforts and limited resources towards stronger economic and health capacities, and fiscal accountability in the U.S. insular areas. (PR)<\/p>\n