University of Hawaii athletic officials Friday pledged to go back to the drawing board to shore up what a critical auditor’s report has portrayed as an under-performing fundraising program.
The report by Accuity LLP, an independent auditor, was presented to the school’s Board of Regents Thursday, and read, “’Ahahui Koa Anuenue’s annual contribution to Manoa Athletics has been steadily decreasing. As AKA is tasked with performing fundraising activities for the benefit of the athletic department, AKA maintains a fiduciary obligation to assist athletics department in reducing its accumulated debt.”
Total contributions were listed at $4.6 million in 2016, $1.4 million below the average of UH’s peers, officials have said.
Auditors recommended “AKA personnel develop an annual fundraising plan, which includes detailed monetary goals. We also recommend that this plan be initially reviewed and agreed upon by management of the athletic department, Chancellor and Board of regents and that AKA’s actual fundraising results be reviewed on an annual basis by the respective parties.”
In a joint statement released Friday, athletic director David Matlin and Jon Kobayashi, President and CEO of AKA, said, “The reality of achieving the financial improvements as quickly as anticipated have been challenging for a variety of reasons. As a result, while there have been successes in certain areas, overall, fundraising has not achieved the levels originally anticipated. AKA is committed to working with the Athletic Department and the University of Hawai‘i Foundation and jointly developing a strategy on how fundraising can be improved to better meet the needs of the athletic program.”
Earlier in the day Kobayashi sent an email to members of the AKA Board of Directors questioning the auditor’s report but subsequently backed away from it.
In an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Kobayashi said his email to the AKA Board “represents my interpretation of what I believed to be relevant data, however, based upon my on-going discussions with David Matlin it appears that some of my data may be inaccurate.”
UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said in a statement, “I am not going to comment on what was said in the (e-mail) to the AKA Board, which was not meant for the public. There are really good, dedicated people at ’Ahahui Koa Anuenue and really good, dedicated people at the UH athletic department and they are all working towards a shared goal, supporting UH’s student athletes and athletic programs. We thank the independent auditor for his hard work and the entire university system is always looking for ways to improve.”
