[ OUR OPINION ]

Contracting method
should be scrutinized

THE ISSUE Governor Lingle has signed into law a method of awarding government contracts after review by committees of professionals.

GOVERNOR Lingle was less than enthusiastic about a proposal in this year's Legislature to ban political contributions by government contractors, yielding to public support of the reform. That proposal died in the session, but Lingle can claim victory over a new law aimed at ensuring that contracts are awarded on the basis of merit. Time will tell whether that is enough to end corruption in the awarding of state and county contracts.

Lingle shied away from the issue of campaign finance overhaul during last year's election. The issue was absent from her "New Beginning" campaign booklet, which instead called for "a transparent system of awarding contracts." Likewise, Micah Kane, state Republican Party chairman during her campaign and now a member of her administration, said such a ban on contractor contributions would be "unfair." Kane said he preferred "full, open and frequent disclosure" of political contributions by contractors.

In her address to the Legislature, the new governor said she would support campaign finance reform, rejected in last year's session, because "the people have made clear their desire" for it. However, she spoke more glowingly of an "honest, fair and totally merit-based" process of awarding contracts.

That is what she got. Committees of professionals appointed by directors of state agencies awarding contracts are to base their decisions on merit, not politics, according to the new law. Names of committee members will be divulged to the public, and they may be questioned about their decisions. Losing bidders can find out why they lost.

"Everyone knows who the committee is, so if the project is junk, then you know who made the selection, who made the ranking," Lingle said.

Lingle signed the procurement measure into law as city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle continued his investigation into violations of the current campaign spending law. Sixty-three companies have been fined a total of $365,850 by the state Campaign Spending Commission for exceeding contribution limits and contributing under false names, mainly to the 2000 re-election campaign of Mayor Harris.

Stanley Kawaguchi, vice president of an engineering firm and former national president of the American Council of Engineering Companies, said the current system "really gave our industry a black eye" because of the "widespread perception" that companies had to make political contributions in order to bid successfully for state and county contracts. However, that circumstance has been more than a perception, as investigations have shown.

The success of the new rules may be measured by the number and size of future contracts awarded to companies whose political contributions defy coincidence. The law's effectiveness will be determined by the degree of independence -- or collegiality -- demonstrated by committee members in awarding contracts.