Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 2, 1 February 1994 — Unfair press distorts auditor's findings [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Unfair press distorts auditor's findings

bv Clayton Hee Chairman, OHA Board of T rustees You would never know it by

reading the morning paper, but the Legislative Auditor of the

State of Hawai'i. in her report on the "Management and Financial Audits of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs," concluded "OHA has initiated several significant programs and has demonstrated its ability to implemenī programs that are pro-

gressive and beneficial to the native Hawaiians and Hawaiians."

Significantly, the team of three auditors spent six months on the audit before reaching their eonclusions.

In addition, the Legislative Auditor hired independent

accountants to examine the finaneial management of OHA. The four member financial audit team eoncluded, "In the opinion of Nishihama and Kishida, CPAs, ine., the financial statements present

fairly, in all material respects, the combined financial position of OHA as of June 30, 1993, and the

combined results of its operations for the fiscal year then ended in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles." Unfortunately, the morning paper chose not to focus on the general conclusions of the Legislative Auditor's report and instead to focus on what was less substantive but more likely to attract attention — questioning the acts of individual trustees. Not content with choosing to focus on the trustees' awareness of their duties the newspapers chose to solicit comments from Hawaiians about an audit report the newspapers knew the Hawaiians had not even read. Unfortunately, some of those Hawaiians had no reservations

about criticizing OHA even though they had not even read the audit report. Auwē. Unfortunately, this is not the first nor will it be the last time the newspapers and OHA's critics have unfairly attacked OHA. That is something I ean tolerate. What I can't tolerate is their laek of eoneem for our beneficiaries. Every beneficiary who read those newspaper articles must have been concerned about OHA's management of their trust funds. The truth is that the beneficiaries have no reason to fear mismanagement of their trust funds. In fact, the CPAs specifically examined the following areas: • revenues and receipts

• purchases and disbursements • payroll. The CPAs concluded they "noted no matters involving those areas and their operation considered to be material weaknesses"! That is why the Board of Trustees was generally pleased with the Legislative Auditor's report. Granted, OHA is not perfect. There are areas whieh, as the Legislative Auditor correctly pointed out, need improvement. We accept those criticisms because they are constructive and will help us. We owe it to our beneficiaries to make OHA the best it ean be.