Custodial services firm challenges loss of contract

Advertiser Staff

A Honolulu business that provides custodial services at Pearl Harbor is challenging in federal court a government decision to limit competition for some of those services to "HUBZone" small businesses.

U.S. District Court Judge Helen Gillmor issued a preliminary injunction Friday requiring the government to withhold the award of a $1.5 million contract, according to plaintiff attorney Timothy H. Power.

The HUBZone program was created by Congress in 1997 to increase employment in economically depressed areas called HUBZones.

Honolulu-based Contract Management Inc., which has done custodial work at Pearl Harbor since 1985, is challenging the Small Business Administration's requirement that small-business contracts must go to a HUBZone business if at least two such businesses are expected to submit bids.

Power said CMI isn't eligible to bid because it is not a HUBZone business. Potentially, about 30 CMI employees would be affected, Power said.

"We just don't see how HUBZone residents will be helped if, for example, a HUBZone company in Detroit wins a contract in Hawai'i," said Power. "Residents in Detroit certainly won't be asked to commute to Hawai'i."