STAND. COM. REP. NO.353

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 567

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 567 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BRIBES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require reporting of bribe solicitations by public officials, and to impose criminal penalties for failure to report.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney and the Police Department of the City and County of Honolulu, and the League of Women Voters of Hawaii. The Office of the Public Defender submitted testimony in opposition to this measure.

Your Committee finds that there have been many instances of public corruption in Hawaii over the past few years. Your Committee believes that our public servants must be held to the highest ethical standards, so that the democratic process is not compromised.

Therefore, your Committee fully supports the intent of this measure, which will impose an affirmative duty on public servants and persons approached by public servants to promptly report bribe offers and to provide criminal penalties for failure to discharge that duty.

Based on testimony received from the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney, your Committee amended this measure to remove the requirement that public servants and persons solicited by public servants report to the county prosecuting attorney's office. Since prosecuting attorney's offices of the counties are not investigative offices, your Committee believes that it is appropriate to require a report only to the county police department or appropriate state or federal office.

Also, you Committee amended this measure to lower the criminal penalty for failure of a public servant to report, from a class B felony to a class C felony, and for failure of others to report from a class C felony to a misdemeanor. Your Committee agreed with many of the testifiers that the criminal penalties contained in the original measure were unduly punitive and not in accord with existing criminal penalties for other violations.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 567, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 567, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations,

____________________________

CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair