STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2971

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1709

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 1709, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GRANTS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Authorize expending agencies of grants to delegate their expending authority to a different agency, subject to approval of the grant recipient and the Governor;

 

     (2)  Require the Department of Budget and Finance to submit an annual report on the status of awarded and pending grants; and

 

     (3)  Repeal the statutory requirement that the Governor notify grant recipients on the status of their grants if grant funds are not released within ninety days of their authorization.

 

     Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

 

     Your Committee finds that grants to private entities and county government agencies are an important tool that help private entities and county government agencies provide benefits to the public.  However, grant funds are not always expended effectively or efficiently by the designated expending agency.  Your Committee finds that inefficient use of valuable and limited financial resources should be corrected so that the public receives the maximum benefit from allocated resources.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by requiring that the Department of Budget and Finance submit the annual report required by this measure to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the start of each regular session, beginning with the 2019 Regular Session.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1709, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1709, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Government Operations,

 

 

 

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DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair