KAPOLEI — State senators will consider a measure today calling for a financial and management audit of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The audit would come on the heels of the Senate's rejection last week of an agreement between the state and OHA to settle a 30-year dispute over revenue from land formerly owned by the Hawaiian government.

The settlement would give OHA $200 million in land and cash plus an annual $15.1 million payment. In exchange, OHA would relinquish any claims to revenues from the so-called "ceded lands."

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa said an audit of OHA would give everyone a chance to review the settlement.

"What the (OHA) beneficiaries are asking for, which we in the Senate do not find to be unreasonable, is to say, 'Slow it down a little bit. Let us participate in this. Talk to us.' And so the audit, to me, is an extension of that," said Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha).

Opponents of settlement have said it asks Hawaiians to give up too much for too little in return. Many Native Hawaiian leaders also complained they were not consulted on the settlement.

OHA trustees are unhappy with the proposed audit and question why lawmakers are asking for an audit now when the agency is mandated by law to undergo one every four years and is due one next year.

Meanwhile, Gov. Linda Lingle used the occasion of the dedication of the new Department of Hawaiian Home Lands headquarters in Kapolei yesterday to urge Hanabusa and other senators to allow the settlement agreement to go to a vote on the Senate floor.

Three Senate committees voted March 17 to shelve the proposal, telling the parties to come back next year after taking into consideration the concerns of constituents.

Lingle criticized senators for rejecting the proposal before they received a report they had sought detailing a series of public hearings held by OHA on the proposed settlement. The report was due yesterday and was received by House and Senate leaders yesterday afternoon.

The House has already approved the settlement and the Senate is all that stands in the way of its passage.

BENEFICIARY CONCERNS

Opponents of the plan said OHA should have done a better job informing its constituents, particularly Hawaiian homesteaders, about the plan.

Hanabusa said she is calling for a financial audit because of those concerns. Hanabusa noted that state Auditor Marion Higa is required by statute to conduct an audit next year.

However, some OHA beneficiaries have asked for an audit to be done immediately. "In light of the settlement issues, we're just looking to expedite it one year," Hanabusa said.

She said beneficiaries have been ignored throughout the negotiation process. Some beneficiaries have raised questions about how OHA spends ceded land monies. "Whether or not those (concerns) are valid, we'll see," Hanabusa said.

OHA trustee John Waihe'e IV suggested the call for an audit was punitive.

"It does seem like an attempt to rile us up for whatever reason," he said. "To the average person, it makes them look petty and bad. They weren't getting positive feedback for holding the bill (to approve the settlement) and now they're doing this."

Lingle said she is equally puzzled by the request for an audit.

"It's irrelevant to the issue at hand," she said. "The issue is about an obligation that the state has to the Hawaiian people, with OHA as the recipient to it, as (mandated) by our Constitution. So, to me, the idea of an audit doesn't make any sense."

During her remarks at the dedication of DHHL's Kapolei headquarters, Lingle criticized senators for not approving the settlement.

"They didn't ask any questions of those who attended the meetings and they didn't offer any alternative plan for resolution to this situation," Lingle said.

The governor said she couldn't understand why senators opposed the settlement when they had not yet received an OHA report they had requested documenting a series of more than 40 community meetings statewide held by the agency and the attorney general's office on the plan.

"The senators didn't want to read what was in the report," Lingle said. Lingle received applause from about half the crowd of about 1,000 people, mostly Hawaiians, as she said "It's up to the senators to take another look ... to try our best to make certain that 30 years doesn't turn into 35, or 40, or 50 years."

ONGOING DISPUTE

The dispute over revenue from the 1.4 million-acre ceded lands — which include the Honolulu International Airport, Honolulu Harbor, Sand Island and Kahului Harbor — has been going on for three decades.

That 36-page report, handed to Senate and House leaders late yesterday, concluded that "there is clearly both support for and opposition to the settlement agreement and proposed legislation in the community."

The report acknowledged that a majority of those who spoke at the community meetings "were critical of the settlement."

However, the report said, most of the concerns raised were "from or about broad perspectives and concerns (rather) than what OHA's share of income and proceeds from the ceded lands ought to be."

The report also said a majority of those attending the meetings did not offer suggestions on how to improve the settlement and pointed to an OHA-paid poll that showed a majority of Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians support the settlement.

OHA trustee Walter Heen said an audit of OHA at this time has no relationship to the ceded lands issue.

Heen said OHA hires an outside auditor to conduct an independent audit annually and reports have come back with no problems.

As to the lack of prior consultation on the settlement, Heen noted that the Senate last year passed a resolution urging OHA to inform the Senate president and House speaker if a potential settlement is reached "recognizing the confidential nature of ongoing negotiations."

Kamaki Kanahele, president of the Sovereign Councils of the Hawaiian Homelands Assembly, applauded Hanabusa's call for an immediate audit of OHA.

Kanahele said homesteaders were not properly consulted on the settlement agreement, even though OHA has a fiduciary responsibility to them.

Further, Kanahele said, OHA has been negligent in giving priority to beneficiaries of the ceded land trust. "And this audit will factually prove it."