The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is signing a contract giving management of Hawai'i's $8.7 million hydrogen fund to Kolohala Holdings LLP.

Ted Peck, chief of the agency's energy planning and policy branch, said the final signatures on the agreement were being obtained yesterday and that Kolohala already had a couple of investments and cost-sharing agreements it hoped to fund with the money.

The contract signing has been more than two years in the making. It included a controversy that erupted after DBEDT director Ted Liu awarded the contract to a bidder which had been ranked the lowest by an evaluation team.

Kolohala had been ranked as the top bidder, and last September, the state Procurement Office ordered DBEDT to rescind its original award and give the contract to Kolohala.

A state Senate committee investigating the contract procurement process is scheduled to meet in executive session next week to discuss a draft report.