State wasting cash but no one accepts blame

The most infuriating thing about the recent cases — all of which illuminate poor financial oversight practices in Hawaii government — isn’t that we have so many of them. (Of course, that’s extremely galling, as well.)

It’s that the state never seems to get to the bottom of what’s gone wrong and fix it, which leaves the taxpayer on the hook for money-wasting that simply goes on and on.

Witness what’s been happening with three separate episodes that came to light in the past week:

» The dealings with CGI Group Inc. comprise the most distressing example of contract mismanagement. CGI, which has been in the headlines nationally for its involvement developing the troubled Healthcare.gov website, also is behind the faltering launch of the related Hawaii-based health-insurance marketplace, the Hawaii Health Connector online portal.

Now we learn that this is the same company that, 14 years ago, built a tax collection system for Hawaii that, according to official reports, has fallen woefully short. After pouring $87.5 million down the drain in CGI modernization jobs, the state is now poised to spend $32 million more on a do-over.

» The University of Hawaii Board of Regents has ordered an audit of the work on the Clarence T. C. Ching Athletic Complex. Failure to complete this long-delayed project, underwritten by the private Ching Foundation and matching state funds, could land UH in sanctions from the NCAA.

» The latest report on the state’s HI-5 beverage container recycling program shows that its long-standing accountability gaps have not been closed, and potential fraud draining the public purse may continue indefinitely.

What all these cases have in common is a lack of disclosure about where decisions go wrong. For example, even after a lengthy legislative briefing last week, it’s still unclear how CGI, a company with a checkered experience as a state vendor, still rose to the top in the selection process for the Hawaii Health Connector site.

The briefing yielded few answers and much finger-pointing. Within the Department of Taxation, some said that fixes were delayed because department officials were discussing whether to bring CGI back.

Officials said CGI can bid on the $32 million fix, although it’s not clear whether it will. The public, in the dark about what really went on here, must press decision-makers to consider past performance in that procurement process.

On the Ching complex, no official explanation about the delays was forthcoming last week because the audit was ongoing. The vendor, T. Iida Contracting Ltd., wasn’t talking. Perhaps UH isn’t being as tight-lipped with the Ching Foundation, which gave $5 million for the project and has to be livid that its name is being associated with such a poor outcome.

It’s appalling to realize that the university may have damaged its prospects for future partnerships with the foundation, which is one of the state’s largest private funding organizations.

Finally, the state Department of Health seems to have put very little effort in fixing the accountability problems in the HI-5 recycling program, flaws that came to light years ago. A system that pays the recyclers on the basis of product turned over for processing would seem to be the most accurate approach, but that has not been investigated as a possibility.

Meanwhile, according to the audit, the program paid $6.2 million in deposit refunds for nearly 7.5 million pounds of materials that cannot be accounted for. Supposedly only one staff accountant understands the payment system and handled $54 million in payouts. Better oversight is crucial to a well-run program.

Gary Gill, the deputy health director charged with the program, acknowledged the problems but said the program also should be judged by how well it has reclaimed what otherwise would have been refuse in the landfill. This may be so, but how can such a leaky program be simply tolerated as part of the bargain?

The public money lost in all these enterprises is staggering, and leaves a void that is painful to see, especially as other state needs go unfilled.

The state is soon to convene a regular legislative session, when many supplemental budget requests will be floated and shot down for lack of funds. There could have been more money, of course, if the state had run a tighter ship, in these cases and many others.

Lawmakers shouldn’t accept this as reality, and the public must be given more answers than they’ve heard so far.