HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0600.004 2012-2014 ply
COUNTY CLERK
COUNTY nrr HAWAII
From: Fred Pollock, Citizen of Hawaii County 2U APR 15 PM 12: 08
To: The County Council and Mayor of Hawaii County
Subject: I support the passage of Bill 181 to amend and improve the ethics rules and
laws of Hawaii County
My name is Fred Pollock. I live in Hawaii County. Previously, I was a US Foreign
Service Officer for the US Department of State/USAID for 20 over years. For most of
my service I worked for US Embassies in developing countries in South and Southeast
Asia and the Middle East. The governments in this part of the world tolerate many
corrupt practices in government contracting and hiring. Given that I was a project officer
for many high value projects between the US Government and our counterpart nations I
was a wittiness or had knowledge of many irregularities in contracting by our
counterparts, which I was expected resolve or halt the funding of the projects, which I
did on a number of occasions. As part of our technical assistance program we worked
with our counterparts to reform and improve their contracting systems as a way to
improve the functioning of governments and increase economic development for their
countries. Consequently, I learned much about government contracting and corrupt
practices, such as nepotism, collusion, favoritism, bid rigging, and bribery. I have lived
in Hawaii for more than a decade. During this time I have read many news articles
about contracting problems, favoritism and nepotism that reminds me of the countries I
previously worked in.
There are many misconceptions about the purpose of ethics legislation. Some people
believe these laws are missionary style morality proscriptions, forcibly imposed over
local traditions. However, in a real democratic society with a well run civil service this is
not the case. Fairness is very important in government contracting. Nevertheless, it is
not an end in itself, when the government implements contracts for public goods and
services payed for by the taxpayers. Without fairness the contracting system for Hawaii
County will not work.
For example, it has been well publicized that nepotism and conflicts of interest between
county officials and private contractors exists but not much has been done to stop it.
According to the newspaper at least two county council members appear to think the
current broken system is OK. This lack of fairness and openness undermines county
credibility and contracting. Private contractors who are not insiders or relatives of
county officials have to mitigate this risk or go out of business. In most countries with
corrupt bureaucracies, like Hawaii County, private contractors work together or collude
in secret in preparing and submitting bids for government contracts. In effect, they take
turns winning and loosing. The contracting process is just a drama for public
consumption. Sealed bids are often just a fiction to satisfy bureaucratic rules.
Contractors reason that cheating is totally justified because the system is rigged in favor
of friends and relatives of government officials.
Comm. No. Q O
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Ref. Date APR 15 20-1L
In effect, a government that tolerates insider favoritism can create widespread,
systematic corruption throughout the entire public/private contracting system. The
government is normally more at fault than the contractors. because it controls the laws,
rules and their implementation.
So what? Why does cheating really matter? Stuff still gets built, right? In reality, it
matters a lot because with a corrupt contracting system the government never really
knows the real cost of a contract or a project until it is over. Winning bids are often
unrealistically low, and designed to win the contract not implement the job. Frequent
cost overruns and no bid contract extensions, like we have here in Hawaii County make
up the cost difference. Consequently, the taxpayers are being cheated by their own
government and their elected officials who have done little to reform the system by
passing enforceable contracting and ethic laws, until now - hopefully.
Irregularities in government contracting is, very likely, a major reason why Hawaii is a
very expensive place to live for all of us. This is the biggest reason the system must be
reformed. The council needs to act now or be voted out of office.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. The Mayor's ethics bill must be passed now to bring predictability and rationality to
procurement, contacting and hiring in Hawaii County. This can't wait.
2. The Council should commission an independent program evaluation of the county
procurement, contracting and hiring system. This should not be an ethics or criminal
probe. The purpose of the evaluation would be to bring full understanding about how
the system really operates so that critical reforms can be implemented. Insiders who
may have committed small violations in the past could possibly be given limited
immunity by helping the evaluators understand and describe how the existing system
operates. With accurate knowledge the evaluation would then make recommendations
to the Mayor and Council for reforms.
3. The Mayor and Council should implement a training program for ethics and
contracting for all county employees. Interested citizens would be invited to observe the
training. Once the public is aware of how the system is supposed to operate this
knowledge, in itself, would be a powerful incentive to keep the system clean.
Fred Pollock