Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2547, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the State Auditor to oversee the expenditures from the University of Hawaii tuition and fees special fund for the benefit of the University of Hawaii Foundation.

Furthermore, this measure subjects the Auditor to the same restrictions on the disclosure of records as the University of Hawaii Foundation.

Your Committee finds that current law authorizes the Board of Regents to make expenditures from the special fund for the purposes of generating private donations for deposit into the University of Hawaii Foundation. The Foundation therefore utilizes state funds. However, the Foundation is a private, nonprofit entity. The Auditor presently has no power to examine the Foundation's use of those funds, since the Auditor's oversight powers are statutorily limited to the records, documents, and transactions of state agencies.

Accordingly, this measure is necessary to facilitate the Auditor's access to information from the University of Hawaii Foundation in order to audit the Foundation's use of state funds, with due regard for the privacy concerns of donors.

Your Committee has amended this measure by replacing the contents of this bill with the substance of S.B. No. 3013, S.D. 2, which your Committee passed out of committee earlier this session and which deals with the same subject matter.

As amended, this measure clarifies that the fund that must be reported with respect to all transfers of moneys is "any fund" of the university, rather than the university support fund. Furthermore, this measure deletes the provision that prohibits the Auditor from identifying the private donor upon the donor's written request.

Your Committee has also amended this measure by correcting a typographical error in the underlying statute being amended.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2547, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2547, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.