Illegal donations may cost contractors' jobs
 |
StoryChat: Comment on this story |
By Rick Daysog
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state is moving to possibly ban some of Hawai'i's largest engineering firms from receiving government contracts after they were fined for making illegal campaign contributions.
Aaron Fujioka, the state's chief procurement officer, sent out notices earlier this week that could lead to the disqualification of eight local firms that receive city and state consulting contracts.
The notices are the first of many that the state plans to issue over the next several months to engineers and architects who made tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to former Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris and other local Democrats, Fujioka said.
"We want to make sure that this unfortunate chapter will not repeat itself in the future," Fujioka said yesterday.
The firms included Geolabs Inc., R.M. Towill Corp., Park Engineering, Wesley R. Segawa & Associates, Engineers Surveyors Hawaii Inc., ECS Inc., Imata & Associates Inc., and Edward K. Noda and Associates Inc.
The firms would be banned from future contracts if they haven't taken corrective action since they were cited for making illegal donations, Fujioka said in his letters to the companies.
Executives at six of the firms did not return calls for comment yesterday, and an attorney for Park Engineering, Steven Hisaka, had no comment, saying he has not seen the letters from the state.
Kendall Hee, Engineer Surveyors' president, said company attorneys are still reviewing the notices issued by the state.
But Hee noted that his firm, which specializes in sewer and roadway projects, made no admission of wrongdoing when it agreed to pay a $78,000 fine levied by the state Campaign Spending Commission in February 2004.
According to Hee, Engineers Surveyors agreed to pay the fine to resolve the commission's investigation into excessive campaign donations.
State law bars donors from giving more than $6,000 to a candidate for a statewide race and $4,000 for other races during a four-year election cycle. Contributors also are prohibited from giving money in the names of other individuals.
The notices from the state Procurement Office come about a month after The Advertiser reported that the biggest violators of the state's campaign finance laws continued to receive millions of dollars in nonbid contracts.
EIGHT FIRMS NOTIFIED
The computer-assisted study of state procurement records found that 17 local consultants fined for giving excessive campaign contributions received more than $65.5 million in city and state work since 2004.
Six of the eight firms receiving debarment notices were among the 17 companies cited by the Advertiser study. The firms included:
CONTROLS AT ISSUE
Under Hawai'i law, companies fined for illegal political contributions are not prohibited from getting government work.
But Fujioka said the state has the authority to disqualify, or debar, a firm for making illegal donations because such violations "are so serious and compelling as to affect the responsibility of the contractor."
In his letter, Fujioka asked the firms whether they had internal controls in place at the time they gave illegal campaign money, and whether they've adopted new ones since then.
He also asked the firms if they are current on their fines, have cooperated with government investigators and have taken disciplinary actions against employees responsible for the illegal campaign donations.
If the company's response satisfy the state's inquiries, the state could drop the debarment proceedings. Firms that don't respond will likely face formal debarment proceedings.
Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.
