On at least three occasions this year, Hawaii has come up short, according to the federal government.

Actually it came up short in the spending federal money department, which is just as bad as spending too much. If you don’t deliver or you don’t spend it, same thing — no more money for you.

There’s an old joke about there being nothing more frightening than a visit from federal officials announcing they are here to help; the new nightmare might be federal officials announcing they are here because they want their money back.

It now appears 2015 marks the year Hawaii was rediscovered by the federal bureaucracy.

The first big slip-up was detailed in a Honolulu Star-Advertiser report by Kevin Dayton noting that the state government was not spending all the federal transportation money allocated. Transportation money is a big deal, because it translates into roads and bridges and improvements that if your state doesn’t want, the feds are pleased to give to another state.

Hawaii in 2010, according to federal government reports, had not spent nearly a billion in federal funds.

“After warning that the backlog had reached ‘unacceptable levels,’ the U.S. Department of Transportation dispatched teams of experts to Hawaii last year to review the state systems used to evaluate, approve, process and fund federal projects. The teams wrote program reviews that were delivered to the state in January along with the message that ‘decisive action must be taken,’” Dayton wrote this summer.

The good news is the state is trying to spend more; the bad news is it is still $400 million away from spending what is allocated.

The state is also being watched by the federal Environmental Protection Agency because Hawaii is not spending some $100 million in federal money. Specifically, the state has not used its “Safe Drinking Water Revolving Fund” money in a “sound, efficient and prudent manner, due to lack of adequate personnel and effective tools and processes.”

The state responded that it was working on spending the federal money as fast as it could, but was only able to spend 80 percent of it. More troubling, the EPA added that it found the Hawaii Department of Health “had not made adequate progress in implementing the corrective action plan.”

So the feds are recommending that the EPA withhold the last $8 million of the grant until the state can do as instructed.

Finally, the state is being watched by the federal Inspector General because of concerns with the state-run Medicaid fraud unit. The feds say Hawaii’s fraud unit got nearly $4 million in federal funds between fiscal 2011 and 2013, but generated just 18 patient abuse convictions, six fraud convictions and $330,000 in criminal fraud recoveries.

“In addition to reimbursing the Office of Inspector General for federal financial participation claimed for costs related to investigations of ineligible cases, to misplaced equipment, to unallowable costs for equipment, the unit should develop and implement a corrective action plan to address the deficiencies described in this report,” said the feds. The state, according to the Inspector General, said it would address all of the concerns raised in the report.

Meanwhile, Hawaii is finding out that making a name for itself with the federal government is not always a good thing.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.