Posted on: Tuesday, October 22, 2002
GOP tallies waste by Democrats
By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press
State House Republicans yesterday unveiled a report they said shows $668.1 million in waste and mismanagement in the Cayetano-Hirono administration.
"We want to show that the state can fund new programs, let taxpayers keep more of their own money and still balance the budget without raising taxes," said Minority Leader Galen Fox.
Gov. Ben Cayetano's spokesman, Cedric Yamanaka, said the governor had no immediate comment on the report. Yamanaka said it looks like a compilation of the same criticisms the Republicans have raised in the past and which already have been answered.
The preliminary report was prepared by the House minority's state-paid staff. The final report is due in December.
Citing Cayetano's use of state staff in August to analyze Republican Linda Lingle's gubernatorial campaign platform, Fox said the report is a legitimate function because it attempts to make sure tax dollars are being well spent.
Much of the 30-page report draws on findings of State Auditor Marion Higa over the past several years and other financial reports. Some date back to 1993.
The greatest examples of extreme waste and mismanagement were departments serving disabled children, the sick, the poor and the elderly, the report said.
Rep. Bud Stonebraker, R-15th (Kalama Valley-Portlock), said the $668 million in waste and mismanagement reported would be enough to pay for the backlog of repair and maintenance in all the state's public schools.
The report "reveals that the current Cayetano-Hirono administration has put students, teachers and education in general on the backburner too long," Stonebraker said.
He noted the report's finding that one Department of Education contract to renovate and paint buildings at Hale Kula Elementary School instead of going to the low bidder at $917,000 went to a company that bid $1.43 million while 140 laptop computers were bought for special education employees who didn't exist.
The report cites former Superintendent of Education Paul LeMahieu's award of a $688,000 special education contract to Kaniu Kinimaka-Stocksdale, who was not qualified to provide the services and LeMahieu's unchecked $63 million contract to a Mainland company to recruit special education teachers.
The report said the Department of Human Services lost more than $14 million in federal funds for free health insurance for poor children, "simply because it did not pursue locating children for the free health insurance."
The greatest area of mismanagement involves 70 special and revolving state funds holding $98.5 million that the state auditor last year said failed to meet state standards and should be abolished, the GOP's report said.
Other big items include $40 million for the state's rabies prevention program over the past 10 years and determined by a coalition of scientists and physicians to be no longer necessary; $61.4 million in excess reserves from insurance companies the auditor in 1998 said should be returned to the Hawai'i Public Health Fund; and $22 million spent by the state for HMSA to process Medicaid fee-for-service claims after the QUEST information system failed.
Rep. Joe Gomes, R-51st (Lanikai, Waimanalo), defended the release of the report two weeks before the general election as "appropriate."
Fox, R-21st, (Waikiki, Ala Wai), also noted that the report will help in preparing for the 2003 legislative session. "We're trying to find out how much money can be reallocated and shifted from a waste area to a productive area," he said.
