STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2378

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2047

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2047 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Auditor to conduct a performance audit of certain offices and programs within the Department of Public Safety and appropriate necessary funds for the audit.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association, Community Alliance on Prisons, and nine individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Public Safety.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of the Auditor.

 

     Your Committee finds that ensuring that public safety officials are sufficiently qualified and working to secure the public's interests is important for promoting public health, safety, and welfare.  Protecting the public's interests requires proper oversight over the Department of Public Safety, and to provide that necessary oversight, it is appropriate to require the Auditor to perform an audit of certain offices and programs within the Department of Public Safety.  In addition, your Committee received various testimony indicating the need to audit additional areas of the Department.  Your Committee recognizes that the proposed audit will take significant time to complete and finds that the Legislature should be kept aware of the status and findings of the audit as it progresses.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Replacing the audit of whether contracts were steered toward contractors and vendors due to familial and personal relationships to an audit of whether contracts are awarded in accordance with the state procurement code;

 

     (2)  Amending the scope of the audit, including by adding additional programs and practices within the Department of Public Safety to be audited;

 

     (3)  Deleting language requiring the Auditor to include proposed legislation in the report to be submitted to the Legislature;

 

     (4)  Requiring the Auditor to submit an interim report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2019; and

 

     (5)  Extending the decline for submission of the auditor's completed report to the Legislature by one year to the Regular Session of 2020.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2047, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2047, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

 

 

 

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair