Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 10, 1 October 2017 — State of Hawai'i Audits OHA! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

State of Hawai'i Audits OHA!

j LEO 'ELELE > TRUSTEE MESSSAGES f

s an elected Tmstee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, I have pledged to work for

greater transparency kwithin OHA and

accountability to the public. I want to urge OHA beneficiaries and citizens of Hawai'i to be on alert for the upcoming release of a report from the Hawai'i State Office of the Auditor. The state performance audit of OHA will contain important information for all stakeholders who care about the effectiveness of the organization. With so mueh talk of audits nowadays, I want to share

exactly what the state audit aims to accomplish. I also want to share how it differs from the independent audit initiated by the OHA Trustees and crafted by the Audit Advisory Committee, whieh I led as chairperson. What is the purpose of the state performanee audit? The state performance audit, conducted at least onee every four years, is designed to examine the effectiveness of programs or the efficiency of agencies, or both. This year, the state Auditor has decided to focus generally on grants and spending. What should we look for in the state performance audit? The first thing worth examining will be how OHA has improved since the last state audit in 2013. The Auditor found in 2013 that inadequate monitoring failed to ensure that grants were achieving their intended results, and issued recommendations for OHA's Transitional Assistance Program to implement. The upcoming state audit will assess OHA's efforts to implement those 2013 recommendations. A second thing to look for is how well OHA has strengthened its own internal policies and followed external government regulations in spending and managing the finances with whieh it is entmsted. It will be important to see what the forthcoming report says about OHA Administration and Tmstee spending practices.

A third item to note will be what OHA has to say in response to the state Auditor, who has already informed OHA

of its preliminary findings. OHA's response will be published as part of the performance audit report. Keen observers will want to know how OHA evaluates and plans to deal with any concerns the forthcoming report may raise. What will the state performance audit NOT tell us? While the state performance audit will be a valuable tool, it is limited in at least two ways. First, the state auditor is limited by time and resources, and will

focus only on selected areas of OHA operations. Secondly, the state audit will not specifically search for fraud, waste and abuse, although it may uncover some irregularities whieh OHA, the public, or other government agencies might choose to pursue further. What this means is that the state audit cannot be the basis of issuing an overall "elean bill of heahh" for OHA. That leads us to our final question. How does the independent audit differ from the state performance audit? The upcoming independent audit has the opportunity to go further than the state performance audit. It will look at every OHA contract in excess of $100,000 over the last five years and a sample of smaller contracts. This could cover the full range of OHA operations, including its LLCs. Furthermore, the independent audit will specifically look for fraud, waste and abuse. Currently, the independent audit is in the final stages of the procurement process designed to attract the best qualified firm from a national field. Onee published, the state performance audit will be available for review at www. auditor.hawaii.gov. ■ Trustee Akina welcomes questions, eomments and opportunities to engage with the community. Contact him at (808) 594-1976 or TrusteeAkina @ oha. org.

Keli'i Akina, Ph.D. īrUStEE, At-lsrgE