The state auditor has told state House and Senate leaders that significant delays in obtaining information from the Lingle administration has caused her to miss a deadline for a report on the administration's actions related to Hawaii Superferry.

A law passed last year that allowed Superferry to resume operations while the state conducts an environmental impact statement also called for an audit into the administration's February 2005 decision to exempt the project from environmental review.

The law required State Auditor Marion Higa to have a report by March 1 and, if her work was not finished, to provide a preliminary draft. The deadline for a final report is April 20.

Higa warned lawmakers in January that she would likely miss the March deadline because she had not been given all the documents she requested from the Lingle administration. Higa also questioned the administration's use of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege in relation to some of the documents.

State Attorney General Mark Bennett said yesterday that the administration has made an extensive effort to respond to Higa's document requests, which he described as "diffuse and generalized," including, for example, e-mail records from an entire division within the state Department of Transportation. Bennett said he sympathizes with Higa's tight deadline to complete her report but said the documents must be screened for privilege before they are released.

"We're doing our best to comply with a massive document request," Bennett said.

In a March 1 letter to House and Senate leaders, Higa said meeting the final April deadline will be a challenge.

"We have encountered significant delays and a variety of roadblocks in conducting our audit tasks," Higa wrote.

State Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser, D-7th (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau), who wanted the audit, said yesterday he was disappointed.

"I'm extremely disappointed that the administration is not cooperating fully with the auditor so we can resolve all these questions once and for all," Hooser said.

State Rep. Marcus Oshiro, D-39th (Wahiawa), who also wanted the audit, said he feared delays.

"This confirms my worst fears," Oshiro said. "The way I looked at it was if you weren't going to meet the first deadline, at least give us a preliminary report, but we don't even get that. Even that half step was not met."

The Lingle administration, responding to a request under the state's open-records law, has released 20 boxes of Superferry-related documents to The Advertiser. The administration cited attorney-client privilege as an issue regarding some of the documents the newspaper requested, but it is not yet known how many documents have been withheld because the administration is still in process of reviewing the material.

The Advertiser used the documents as the basis for articles in January that detailed how some staff at the state Department of Transportation had pushed for an environmental review. Many of the same documents have been provided to the state auditor.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.