Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 6, 1 June 2017 — State Procurement Office investigates OHA over lucrative, non-bid contract [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

State Procurement Office investigates OHA over lucrative, non-bid contract

/A no'ai kakou... On /\ May 8, 2017, Hawaii ^^\ News Now reported # % that"acriminalprobe / \is now underway on a lucrative, non-bid contract issued by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs." They also reported that "the state Attomey General's office has subpoenaed records relating to an OHA's contract with [a] Hawaiian scholar... Sources said the subpoena was issued to the State Procurement Office, whieh recently found that OHA improperly awarded the contract

without competitive bidding." In early May, OHA received a copy of a letter from Sara Allen, the Administrator of the State Procurement Office (SPO), to Mililani Trask regarding OHA's Contract No. 2879 with Kuauli 'Āina-Basedlnsights LLC. It stated that a certain division of our staff had violated the State Procurement laws. This news was not a revelation to me, as I had been informing the Trustees that this behavior had been going on for a very long time. As the former Chair, I wanted this behavior stopped. It was the main reason for my rescinding the procurement duties from the OHA CEO, whieh caused a furor by some management

staff and some of the puhlie. However, the puhlie was not aware of OHA's internal problems and did not understand my reasoning for this removal of this power. Needless to say, my detractors used this to say the Board was dysfunctional under my two-month watch and it was a reason to elect a new Chair. As a result, the "old guard" was put back in power. So here we go again, faced with the same problems, only in worse shape now because it isn't just the State Procurement Office who is looking into OHA. We didn't do

well at the legislature last year or this year, and our beneficiaries question the ability of some Trustees to manage our Trust assets. Can OHA be fixed? Yes, but it will take political will on the part of some Trustees to do what is necessary to make this organization into one that our beneficiaries ean be proud of and our employees happy to work for. Aloha Ke Akua. ■

Interested in Hawaiian issues & OHA? Please visit my website at www.mwenaakana.org formore information or e-mai.l me at rowenaa@oha.org.

Rūwena Akana

TrustEE, At-largE