Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs and Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 160, H.D. 1, entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to create civil liability and penalties in favor of the counties for false claims.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Plumbers Union, and Davis Levin Livingston Grande.

This measure allows a county to recover civil penalties of at least $5,000 to $10,000, plus three times that amount of damages that a county may sustain on account of false claims made to the county by any person. This measure is similar to sections 661-21 to 661-29, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), relating to false claims to the State, which was enacted in 2000. The prosecuting attorney is required to investigate and bring a civil action for a violation. A private person may also bring an action in the name of the county.

As with the effectiveness of the comparable section 661-21, HRS, and the federal False Claims Amendments Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-562), your Committees find that this measure will afford the counties with an effective deterrent to false claims against them.

Your Committees note that this measure allows the prosecuting attorney to bring a civil action under section 46-B, HRS, of the new enactment. However, your Committees believe that civil actions at the county level are brought by the corporation counsel, unlike at the State level where the attorney general can bring both types of actions. Your Committees ask the Committee on Ways and Means to make an amendment accordingly, if appropriate.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 160, H.D. 1, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.