Despite the director’s pledges to make tangible progress within six months on proposed changes, critics remained skeptical that recommendations contained in a recent audit of the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands will lead to any meaningful reform in an agency long plagued with management and oversight problems.
Issues the audit raised were brought Thursday before a Senate panel seeking more information on the report.
The audit of the DHHL’s Homestead Services Division, released last month, said lax oversight, mismanagement, insufficient record-keeping, poor communication and a lack of policies and procedures undermine the agency’s mission of serving Native Hawaiians, its intended beneficiaries.
Overall management of the department has been further scrutinized in recent weeks in a three-part special series by the Star-Advertiser that found a lack of rules and transparency in the agency raised troubling questions for beneficiaries.
Critics at the briefing, which lasted more than two hours, included one Hawaiian Homes Commission member who said many of the proposed changes have been recommended for decades, with minimal, if any, progress to date.
"All of these issues that were brought to the table tonight we raised in the ’70s," said Renwick "Uncle Joe" Tassil, who has been pushing for major reforms. "The lack of procedures, the lack of policy, is what we tried to discuss some 40 years ago … and that’s the thing that’s holding us up today — policies."
Citing previous audits, most recently in 2003 and 1993 that included follow-up reports, some lawmakers also appeared skeptical of substantive changes occurring.
"These audits have taken place (previously), and I believe that all of those reports probably had similar hearings like this and similar plans that said they were going to get these changes moving forward," Senate President Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kalihi Valley-Moanalua-Halawa) said in questioning of DHHL Director Jobie Masagatani. "My concern is, how guaranteed are we that you, in fact, are going to implement these programs so we’re not going to be sitting here 10 years from now with another report saying that since the 2012 report nothing improved?"
Sen. Brickwood Galuteria (D, Kakaako-McCully-Waikiki) ran down a list of six changes Masagatani proposed and sought specific dates for when she expected to accomplish those goals.
Masagatani said she understood the skepticism, adding that her department already has begun work on several of the changes.
After the briefing she said of the senators, "I think they’re very interested in seeing the program move forward successfully."
"I think you just have to fix it by doing, by action, and many of the things that I had talked about, committed to, we actually have in motion already, so it’s just following through on that.
"In six months we may not be complete, but we certainly want to show progress."
Commissioner Kama Hopkins said he was glad to see Galuteria seek specific benchmarks for when changes could be expected.
"I await those improvements and those things to come before the commission so we can approve them and start getting those things going," he said.
The recommendations the auditor outlined and the department agreed to included better overall tracking of the DHHL loan program, improved reporting, development of a risk management plan, improved clarity and consistency within the program, greater internal controls and benchmarks for better evaluation.
DHHL, led by a nine-member commission, administers about 200,000 acres of public land set aside for agricultural and pastoral use to be leased to Native Hawaiians.
The briefing focused primarily on the audit’s two primary findings: that the commission fails to meet its fiduciary obligations and that the department’s lax management of loans undermines the program’s ability to serve beneficiaries.
One particular area of concern focused on delinquencies of lessees receiving loans through DHHL.
Lawmakers and Masagatani agreed that a better tracking system for loans was needed to ensure delinquencies were better managed. In some cases, officials are not notified of a lessee delinquency until 90 days after it has first occurred, making it difficult to refinance or otherwise mitigate the loan and keep a beneficiary on the land.
Acting Auditor Jan Yamane noted that the department has vague policies and standards governing its direct loans, with no guidance in determining satisfactory credit and no system to oversee delinquencies, adding that the lack of controls "predisposes" the system to favor delinquent lessees.
Sen. Clayton Hee (D, Heeia-Laie-Waialua) said he was troubled that more was not being done to mitigate loans for Native Hawaiians before the delinquency is moved to a contested-case hearing that could ultimately lead to eviction.
"One of the things that’s present (in the audit) is its subtle urge to evict homesteaders," Hee said in questioning Yamane. "In fact, it’s more than subtle, in my opinion."
He said the delinquency process puts Hawaiians at a disadvantage, when the department should be doing all it can to try and keep beneficiaries on the land.
"I find it somewhat interesting — a more accurate word is ‘troubling’ — that rather than curing the cancer, we’re killing the patient by throwing the patient outside," he said. "The general tone of this audit is that these are delinquent people — out they go. I have not seen, in this audit, a suggestion to immediately go into loan mitigation to the extent appropriate."
