ISLAND VOICES
Strengthen whistleblower law

In 1977, over 50 Common Cause/Hawai'i volunteers hand-searched hundreds of campaign spending reports to assess whether there was a provable link between campaign contributions and government architectural and engineering contracts, which at that time were awarded solely on a nonbid basis. The study concluded that design firms and their employees, spouses and relatives contributed a disproportionate share of political donations. The study also found that firms that made political donations were awarded government contracts.

Twenty-five years later, the connection between campaign contributions and government contracts still dominates headlines, especially during critical political election years.

Although there has been significant procurement reform, repeated attempts at campaign finance reform and a stronger and more active Campaign Spending Commission, has anything significantly changed in the last 25 years? More important, can anything more be done to make certain that government is paying for the best-qualified professionals — professionals who are hired based on merit and not on campaign donations?

There are of course, different ways to attempt to ensure that government contracts are not sold to the highest (campaign contribution) bidder. However, what happens when the contract is already issued? Are there sufficient protections in place when private and public employees recognize that a public project is not being run efficiently and that government monies are being wasted?

Hawai'i fortunately has a law — the Hawai'i Whistleblowers' Protection Act — that was passed in 1987 to protect "government employees and citizens who are willing to blow the whistle when they are aware of ethical or other violations of law." This past legislative session, the Hawai'i Whistleblowers' Protection Act was strengthened by expanding its coverage to include reportings of wrongdoing involving government contracts.

Should government do more than this? The problem with our existing safeguards is that they are a solution for what happens after an employee suffers retaliation for speaking out about government fraud and waste.

Our government instead needs to protect employees — especially public employees — before retaliatory action is taken. How can this be accomplished?

Government should thoroughly evaluate and strengthen training, procedures and ordinances to ensure that public employees are encouraged to report potential wrongdoing and are protected once they come forward. Some of the potential actions that the government should take are:

• Establishing a system to allow government employees to anonymously report suspected fraud and abuse.
• Training government employees and supervisors to ensure that suspected wrongdoing is reported by employees.
• Working with public employee unions to urge their members to step forward and report any suspected wrongdoing.
• Passage of a county Whistleblower Protection Act that is geared specifically to protections for county employees who reported suspected wrongdoing to their supervisors.

Procedures such as these must be in place to ensure that government employees are encouraged to report wrongdoing at the earliest possible time. Government waste and fraud can be reduced — if we protect those courageous public employees who come forward to report suspected wrongdoing.