The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has聽taken steps towards acting on 15 of the 20 recommendations made by the state auditor in 2013, but has not actually implemented any of them, according to a follow-up report released Friday.
Under pressure from a judge’s ruling that found persistent, severe underfunding of the department, Hawaii lawmakers agreed Thursday to give the department its at $17 million for fiscal 2016, which ends June 30. House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke cautioned that the department is expected to use the funding to 鈥渁ppropriately and properly serve the beneficiaries.鈥
The auditor’s report 鈥斅燼 follow-up to a 2013 audit that found a number of deficiencies in the department’s operations 鈥 comes two days before acting Auditor Jan Yamane is replaced by newly confirmed Auditor Les Kondo.
Here are some highlights from the follow-up report.
“The commission has not established a risk聽management plan and does not have any direct involvement in adopting policies or procedures聽related to the issuance of direct loans, delinquent loan collections, or monitoring contested case聽hearing orders,” the auditor says in the report.
“The department has, however, more clearly identified staff responsibilities for聽collecting and monitoring delinquent loan-related contested cases through amendments to the聽department鈥檚 loan policies and procedures manual,” the auditor says. “It has also established financial requirements聽for direct loan applicants and reassessed and adjusted departmental direct loan interest rates to help聽identify qualified loan candidates and to provide financial relief for borrowers.”
However, the auditor says the department聽continues to provide monthly reports to the commission “that do not fully reflect the severity聽of loan delinquencies.”
The department says聽its current reporting method is based on industry聽practices.
Read the full audit below.
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About the Author
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Nathan Eagle is a deputy editor for Civil Beat. You can reach him by email at neagle@civilbeat.org or follow him on Twitter at , Facebook and Instagram .