EDITORIAL
Telecom deal at UH bears careful watching

When the University of Hawai'i finally gained its long-sought "autonomy" to make legal, contracting and other decisions free from the red tape that binds most state departments, it was clear that the new freedom would come with responsibility.

As onerous as the old rules were, they at least had the virtue of putting people through closely watched hoops before public money was spent.

But the university made a convincing case that it could never be as "entrepreneurial" and innovative as it wanted unless it was free to make its own decisions, and make them fast.

At the same time, however, the university knew that it would be watched closely.

Thus far, it appears the experience has worked. The new UH medical school in Kaka'ako is off to a fast and impressive start, in part because the UH was free to make its own decisions on designers and builders.

But now some local telecommunications companies are suggesting the track is perhaps too fast, or at least too slippery, for those who are not on the inside with the university system.

They point to a contract for the design of a telecommunications and computer system at the new medical school.

According to staff writer Jim Dooley, the consulting architects for that project originally contacted a number of local communications companies to see if they would be interested in the design job. They were first to submit their qualifications and then those deemed qualified would be allowed to bid on the job.

But somewhere in the process, that plan was set aside and the design job was awarded to Verizon Hawaii, Inc., our local telephone company. Verizon will do the work for free, in part so that it will be allowed to bid on the $2.5 to $5 million installation contract for the system.

Originally, UH said that those who won the design contract would not be allowed to bid on installation.

Under the autonomy system, UH was perfectly within its right in awarding the job to Verizon. In fact, there was no requirement that other telecommunications companies even had to be consulted.

And it may well have made sense to go with Verizon, the biggest telecommications company in town and the contractor for the existing telephone and computer system at Manoa.

But by first opening the door to other contractors and then shutting it, UH is left open to criticism and to suspicion that it was playing favorites.

That's the last thing UH should want. It took many long, hard years of lobbying and persuasion to gain autonomy. That puts a huge burden on the university to use that autonomy in an open and fair manner.

As we said, with freedom comes responsibility. In this case, it is responsibility to be particularly scrupulous about how public money is spent, avoiding even the slightest suggestion that the rules are being bent.