By Sandra S. Oshiro
Advertiser Business Editor

Transparency.

It's a word you'd hear when buying stationery or curtains. Yet there it is, popping up in newspaper business sections nationwide.

In the wake of Enron and WorldCom, transparency describes the effort by businesses and regulators to open up companies' operations and finances to public scrutiny.

Had Enron shareholders known about the financial sleight-of-hand that kept the company magically afloat, perhaps so many retirees and employees would not have lost their life's savings.

Hawai'i could use more transparency. Rarely does a week go by without a reporter running into a stone wall when asking probing questions about a company or government agencies.

Government, whether it's the University of Hawai'i athletic department or the state Employees Retirement System, clearly has an obligation to be transparent to the taxpayers who finance them.

For businesses, the imperative is less clear; if not dealing with a publicly traded company, what is the public's interest in knowing the details of a merger or the ouster of a CEO?

The answer is simple. Even privately held businesses can have an impact on the public — for good or ill. Whether a company pollutes the environment, lays off workers or contributes through community service, it is in the public's interest to know how the business works.

The Wal-Mart/Sam's Club project under development near Ala Moana Center is a good example of the interconnectedness of commerce and the way we live our lives.

The project, bounded by Ke'eaumoku, Sheridan, Makaloa and Rycroft streets, will have multiple effects on the community: convenience for those who want to shop in town, increased traffic for the immediate neighborhood, economic repercussions for surrounding businesses and cultural impacts from the discovery of ancient bones on the site.

All of these issues matter to large segments of Hawai'i's population. That is why the refusal of Peter Young, state Department of Land and Natural Resources director, and Holly McEldowney, acting administrator for the department's preservation division, to discuss the discovery in July of more bones at the Wal-Mart site is more than a disappointment, even given the pending litigation that McEldowney cites as reason for the department's silence.

In the new post-Enron world order, accusations of company wrongdoing and government enforcement actions keep piling up. Handcuffed executives are taken on perp walks; style diva Martha Stewart is fingerprinted and Freddie Mac officers face firings.

At some point, one can hope, the reforms and arrests may change the mindset of companies and government agencies that still view full disclosure as a threat rather than an offshoot of exemplary public and customer service.

Transparency, after all, whether in paper, fabric or business practices, works best when there is more good to reveal than bad to hide.

Reach Sandra S. Oshiro at 525-8063 or soshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.