STAND. COM. REP. NO. 322

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                   

 

RE:     S.B. No. 1135

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1135 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROCUREMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require cash or protest bonds to be returned to the initiating parties, minus administrative costs, except in cases where the appeal was frivolous or made in bad faith.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the General Contractors Association of Hawaii; Subcontractors Association of Hawaii; S & M Sakamoto, Inc.; Ralph S. Inouye Co, Ltd; Alan Shintani Inc.; and Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert.

 

     Your Committee finds that the primary intent of the Hawaii Public Procurement Code is to provide fair and equitable treatment, foster broad-based competition, fiscal responsibility, and efficiency in the procurement process, and increase confidence in the integrity of the system.  Further, your Committee finds that a party initiating a protest in an administrative proceeding is required to post a procurement protest bond that is forfeited upon losing appeal of a bid protest decision.  Your Committee also finds that in the entire nation, only seven states impose a bond requirement to submit a bid protest or seek an appeal of a bid protest decision.  Under existing laws, Hawaii is an outlier as the only state that imposes immediate forfeiture of the bond if a protestor loses the appeal.  This measure puts Hawaii in line with the other bond protest states.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1135 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Government Operations,

 

 

 

________________________________

ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Chair