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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 11, 2007

Corruption in mass transit is target of bill

Advertiser Staff

With major corruption problems marring some big public construction projects elsewhere, Honolulu should take no chances on its planned mass-transit system, says one city councilman.

The city should bar any company convicted of bid-rigging or other corruption charges from working on the $5 billion transit project to link West O'ahu with urban Honolulu, Councilman Charles Djou said Wednesday.

"I want it explicitly stated that the city will not engage any company that has engaged in corrupt practices in the past," said Djou, a longtime critic of the transit project.

He has introduced a city bill and related resolution to ban such companies.

"I just want it on the table that if you've been a corrupt company in the past, we're just not even going to work with you, period," Djou said.

It's not clear that such measures would withstand legal challenges if the council were to approve them. But Djou said the issue must be explored because the stakes are so high with the transit project.

A growing European bribery scandal centered on a huge German engineering firm is one example of the potential for problems, Djou said.

Recent changes to Hawai'i's procurement rules can bar contracting with companies convicted of certain offenses, but do not necessarily apply to firms based outside Hawai'i, Djou said.

Some major national and international construction firms with serious histories of corruption could be interested in the transit project but may have never done business here, he said.

A city spokesman said Honolulu "fully intends to follow the Hawai'i Administrative Rules on procurement as well as the Federal Transit Administration's best-practice procurement methods for transit-related contracts."

The city hopes to break ground on the project in 2009 with a first phase that would link west Kapolei with Ala Moana Center.