I was browsing contract listings at USASpending.gov and just requested a listing of federal contracts performed in Hawaii in FY 2010.

What an interesting list!

I’m not sure exactly what I expected, but I was surprised by the number of Native Hawaiian and Alaskan/Native American tribal groups which are landing multimillion dollar contracts through federal programs that set aside contracts for these organizations.

Manu Kai, at the top of the list, is a joint venture between Akimeka LLC, a Native Hawaiian high tech business, and ITT, the multinational corporation that previously held these contracts.

It’s followed in this listing by Calista Corporation, an Alaska Native Regional Corporation.

Looking down the list, there’s Chugach Alaska Corporation, another of the Alaka Native corporations; Akimeka Technologies; The Cherokee Nation; Choctaw Professional Resources Enterprise, etc.

These federal set-asides are clearly succeeding in pushing federal dollars to minority-owned and native-owned businesses.

I wonder how these businesses view the Akaka Bill and how much clout they wield within the larger Hawaiian community. With access to federal dollars and the jobs that follow, I would suppose they carry a lot of weight.

A more careful look through contracts over several years, and a profile of the Native Hawaiian businesses that have benefited the most, would seem overdue.