UH repair backlog needs fixing

The University of Hawaii is behind in its needed repairs and maintenance — part of a broad problem with its overall handling of construction projects.

Although maintenance has lagged for many years, especially on the Manoa campus, the more recent development is the dollar figure attached to UH system’s backlog of work. It’s a stunner: $461 million.

How did UH get nearly a half-billion dollars behind in its needed upkeep?

Going forward, the university must get control of its maintenance function; judging on complaints last week from the person directing facilities management, it would seem that the operation has been severely understaffed, and that situation will need to be corrected.

However, the bottom line is that UH needs to focus on clearing that backlog, so it’s helpful that the Legislature is turning up the heat by creating a special initiative to get the work done.

Today the state Senate Ways and Means Committee is due to make its call on House Bill 115, which should be advanced to a vote on the Senate floor and then to conference committee, where differences in the House and Senate versions could be ironed out.

The bill creates a "major repair and replacement special fund" as well as a panel to oversee the catch-up campaign.

On a separate track, Ways and Means has approved an amended House Bill 114, which essentially would strip UH of its procurement responsibilities, at least temporarily, over new projects begun after the bill takes effect.

Most of the duties would be transferred to the Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS), the agency that handles much of the state’s contracting work.

Although it would be sensible to bring DAGS into the oversight loop while UH is whittling away at the backlog and improving construction management overall, this bill goes too far.

For starters, it also would create an independent audit committee within the university’s Board of Regents. As noted in testimony by Glenn Shizumura, who directs the UH Office of Internal Audit, the board has already established an audit committee.

Lawmakers have had reason to look askance at UH for its various missteps over the past year, but the regents are still the primary overseeing authorities and should be given the opportunity to ferret out the problems through its own audit mechanism.

The regents, then, will need to be less passive in demanding progress and accountability than they have been in recent months.

Under the bill, where procurement is concerned, DAGS would build capacity of UH to handle its own duties down the road, said state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, who chairs the Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing Committee.

It would be a similar transition to the one that led the state Department of Education to take over its procurement from DAGS, he added.

The difference here, however, is that UH is already several years into its semi-autonomy and, the staffing shortages notwithstanding, has its procurement operation in place.

It makes more sense to leave procurement within UH for now, but requiring that the state Procurement Office, which is administratively attached to DAGS, provide oversight.

On the whole, HB 115 has a better approach when it comes to accelerating the construction program at UH to tackle repairs.

Among its components:

» The new special fund would be created initially using 10 percent of the balances of all UH special funds for the next two fiscal years.

» The fund also would include 5 percent of all gross revenues UH receives, and revenue from general obligation bonds.

» A new campus planning facility board would prioritize the projects and direct the schedule, giving the Legislature an annual status report.

There’s still time to massage these bills in conference committee to get the balance right.

The bottom line is that UH needs to get a clear signal that taxpayers expect a new direction in its repair and maintenance program, and lawmakers could do so more effectively without allowing too many cooks in the kitchen.