procurement investigation

November 2008

Stories:
Accomplishment of 2008 Legislature
Scholarship and Award Recipients
2008 Survey Results
Procurement Investigation
Sen. Hydrogen Investigation Final Report
Photos: Active and Involved

My Thoughts on the Procurement Investigation

Anyone so anxious to level unfounded criticism at the Senate’s Procurement Investigation must be desperately afraid of its findings.

I am not surprised at Governor Linda Lingle's attempt to divert attention from the facts surrounding Ted Liu's $8.7 million procurement violation. However, she failed to mention that the Senate voted unanimously to authorize the investigation after Mr. Liu’s months-long refusal to comply with the State Procurement Officer's order to rescind his award of the contract to his friend, Barry Weinman, and instead give it to the rightful highest-ranked bidder, Kolohala.

The governor also neglected to mention that Barry Weinman has been a significant contributor to her campaign. Records show that Barry and Virginia Weinman contributed over $100,000 to her, Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona, a handful of other candidates, and the Republican Party.

She glosses over the fact that Mr. Liu supposed error clearly violated even the most basic tenets of the procurement code. That is at the core of our investigation: to determine whether he did so knowingly and intentionally. Sixty hours of testimony revealed that Mr. Liu, his deputy, his ASO and division heads were—at best—embarrassingly derelict in administering the procurement laws.

My question to the Governor is what happened to her campaign promise of “Restoring Trust In Government”? She stated, “We have seen favoritism in the awarding of government contracts and personal advancement based on who you know. We have observed non-bid contracts gong to contractors, engineers and architects who by no small coincidence were major contributors to some elected official’s last campaign. I will immediately: Create a transparent system of awarding contracts that brings Hawaii in compliance with universally accepted standards. It's time for ‘best practices’ to replace the ‘good ol' boy network.’”

Instead, we see the Lingle administration doing everything she criticized past administrations for.