What’s a round of golf worth? It depends on who’s buying.

Nine current and former state employees agreed to pay $35,800 in penalties for allegedly accepting free golf from at least 26 companies that did business with the state, according to a Feb. 2 report by the state Ethics Commission. In exchange, the golfers got a mulligan: They avoided the possibility that the commission would pursue more serious punishment.

The commission said it had enough information to charge the employees with significant violations of the state ethics code. However, the charges were settled before the commission reached a formal conclusion, and the report qualified its language to say the employees "appeared to have accepted" free golf from contractors.

The commission emphasized that it found no evidence that the employees were influenced by the gifts or used their official positions to favor the companies involved.

But appearances matter — a lot. The ethics code prohibits an employee from receiving any gift that can reasonably be inferred to be an attempt to influence or reward an employee’s official actions, whether or not the influence was exercised.

It’s a high standard — inconvenient, perhaps, but wholly necessary. Many government officials responsible for billions of dollars in taxpayer money work outside the public eye, overseeing lucrative contracts with little oversight or personal accountability. Taxpayers have to trust them. The ethics rules are the foundation of that trust, and cannot be dismissed or ignored.

Unfortunately, the information the commission gathered speaks for itself:

» Most of the employees held positions of authority within their agencies.

» The companies providing the freebies either "had ongoing, or were interested in developing" business relationships with those agencies, or the employees themselves took "official action directly affecting or involving the Firms that appeared to have paid for their golf."

» The gifts appeared to be "primarily personal in nature," with no benefit to the state.

» In some instances, the commission said, it appeared that "but for his status as an employee of the agency, the (employee) would not have received the free golf."

In many cases, the "free golf" included entry fees to golf tournaments, which covered green fees, cart fees, food and beverage (including dinner banquets), gifts for participants and prizes, at costs ranging from approximately $85 to $800 per person. In some cases, the employees allegedly failed to file disclosure reports as required by law for gifts of $200 or more.

Furthermore, this gift-giving appeared to be part of longstanding practice. The nine employees allegedly accepted free golf perks more than 100 times over a period of six years, between 2008 and 2013. This behavior sends a disturbingly wrong message to the staffers they may supervise.

According to the commission, the employees provided various explanations for accepting the gifts: They did so based on personal friendships, not business ties; they were unaware of the ethics code requirements; they were on vacation; they participated because the golf tournaments were charity events for worthy causes. These rationalizations may have worked in the past, but times have changed. Now they are immaterial, replaced by a higher standard of responsibility.

In a brief statement to the Star-Advertiser, Gov. David Ige promised to investigate the commis- sion’s findings to determine if the procurement process was compromised. He also vowed to "see if we can take further measures to strengthen procurement integrity in our state."

A governor who takes a strong, proactive approach to enforcing ethics laws? That would be a refreshing change. But it shouldn’t be necessary. Government employees in positions of authority should already know the rules and abide by them. Companies who do business with the state should respect the ethics code as well, and act accordingly.

The names of the employees and companies involved can be found at the Ethics Commission website, http://ethics.hawaii.gov.