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The has ended its year-long investigation of Hawaii school bus companies for possible collusion in setting prices.

Hawaii School Bus Association lobbyist John Radcliffe told Civil Beat that he’s glad it’s over.

“That investigation harmed a good number of local business people and their families,” he said. “Even though nothing happened — nothing untoward, no price fixing, no one ever charged with anything, no one found guilty — the mere accusation of wrongdoing in Hawaii and other places is enough to cause enormous pain.”

The association is comprised of 10 bus companies, the largest being , which holds roughly half of the state’s contracts.

Civil Beat learned of the federal probe after launching its Taken for a Ride investigative series in Octobert 2011. The stories revealed there was no competition for regular school bus contracts from 2008 to 2011. During that four-year period, ridership remained steady while the price for the Department of Education contracts rose from $47 million per year to $72 million.

Bus company operators told Civil Beat last November that they had been interviewed by FBI agents about whether there was collusion among school bus owners.

FBI spokesman Tom Simon did not return a message seeking comment. He told Civil Beat in November 2011 that Department of Justice rules prohibit confirming or denying even the existence of cases in which no charges have been filed.

Former Attorney General Margery Bronster, who was retained to represent the association, said she and her client were pleased with the decision.

“We believe that that’s the appropriate outcome that the investigation should get dropped,” she said.

House Speaker Calvin Say referred to the inquiry as an “investigation on Roberts,” as in Roberts Hawaii, the largest school bus service provider in the state, saying he recently learned that it had been dismissed.

“The DOJ is not doing anything,” he said. “They didn’t find anything.”

Over the past year, the bus industry and the department have faced increasing scrutiny.

In August, the state auditor blasted school officials for ineffective and unsystematic management, blaming haphazard oversight for a lack of competition among bidders and spiraling costs.

The department hired a consultant in June to study the student transportation services division and figure out how to fix the problem. After a two-month review, Management Partnership Services presented its report Tuesday to the Board of Education and Wednesday to state lawmakers.

The study found that Hawaii is paying on average $1,756 per student and $86,520 per bus. The consultant compared this to similar districts, such as Howard County in Maryland, which pays an annual average cost of $676 per student and $76,200 per bus.

Radcliffe said the consultant’s study pretty much exonerates the bus contractors while underscoring the department’s problems.

“It points out things the vendors have been saying for years,” he said, such as how changing bell schedules could improve efficiency and implementing software could boost accountability.

Radcliffe said the increased cost of the contracts comes with doing business in Hawaii. He said it may indeed be less expensive to operate buses in some of the mainland school districts the consultant compared Hawaii to, but the cost of living in those places is also much less, which the study didn’t explain.

Radcliffe also attributed the higher costs to regulation. While supporting rules that make school buses a safe way to transport students to class, he said he opposes laws that force private bus companies in Hawaii to pay union wages to non-unionized workers.