The auditor just dropped their report on the contract tracing efforts of the State Department of Health.
I haven’t had a chance to read through it yet, but the auditor’s comments that preface the report are devastating.
Auditor’s Comment
Transparency and Accountability – Now More Than Ever
We recognize that the Department of Health had myriad responsibilities when it did not respond to our request for information on its contact tracing efforts; however, it is precisely during times of crisis when the public needs and deserves clear, concise, and transparent communication from its government.
As Hawai‘i has watched its total number of COVID-19 cases more than double since the end of July, a growing sense of urgency has intensified scrutiny of the Department of Health’s (DOH) contact tracing program. Leadership of the department’s contact tracing efforts has been heavily criticized by the public and government officials, including the Lieutenant Governor and a member of the Hawai‘i Congressional delegation.
We intended to report on DOH’s contact tracing process, primarily to filter through the varying, confusing, and often conflicting information and to provide a clearer, objective, and up-to-date understanding of the department’s efforts. However, instead of cooperation and assistance, we encountered barriers, delays, and ultimately were denied access to those responsible for leading the department’s contact tracing: the Disease Outbreak Control Division (DOCD) Chief and the Disease Investigation Branch (DIB) Chief, who recently took over that task. While the Health Director spoke with us, failing to respond to numerous requests until a few hours before the interview, he repeatedly directed us to speak with the DOCD Chief for answers to specific questions about the department’s contact tracing process. At the end of our discussion, the Director said he would ask the DOCD Chief to talk to us and would provide us with documents we had requested in multiple letters to him, including the department’s policies and procedures relating to contact tracing. However, the DOCD Chief did not contact us, and the Health Director did not provide the requested documents.
The Deputy Director for Health Resources provided us with a time when the DIB Chief was available to speak with us. In her email, the Deputy Director instructed us to include the Attorney General on future communication and that the Attorney General would participate in our meeting with the DIB Chief. However, on the day of our scheduled meeting, the DIB Chief informed us that the Deputy Director, her boss, was mistaken about her availability and said she was too busy to speak with us. The Governor’s Chief of Staff subsequently contacted us to repeat that the DIB Chief was unavailable.
While we understand DOH staff are busy, especially those working to improve the department’s contact tracing approach, we expected the department’s full and timely cooperation. We did not expect the Attorney General or the Governor’s office to involve themselves in our attempt to report about DOH’s approach to contact tracing. We are not a political office. We are an office established by the State Constitution to provide objective, unbiased assessments of government operations. We can only do our job with unimpeded and complete access to an agency’s program.
Now, more than ever, DOH must be transparent and accountable. The lack of cooperation we received is, frankly, inexcusable. Public confidence in the department, specifically in its ability to perform timely contact tracing of the growing number of positive cases, has been eroded. The community now has many questions about the process that DOH has, for months, represented as under control. For DOH to effectively protect public health and reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus so we can begin re-starting our economy, it is critical the department rebuild public trust. This health emergency demands DOH ensure that its response is transparent by providing the public with complete, timely, and accurate information.
We hope the department will fully and promptly cooperate with future requests.
Leslie H. Kondo State Auditor
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Is there a pattern here about effectiveness and communication at the Dept. of Health. See this article:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2017/12/28/state-health-officials-criticized-for-dengue-outbreak-response-in-audit/
Similar things happen with other government agencies (chop shops openly operating on State lands; neglect of known incipient invasive fire-ant hazard, tolerance of illegal TVU’s, rampant, ignored cesspool pollution, etc) . Public choice theory has explored how the motivation/reward circumstances of public employment are substantially different than those in private industry/business. Often maligned for ‘greed,’ private organizations who serve customers suffer repercussions, lose business, and people get fired, when they don’t meet customer expectations. Government agencies have no competitors, personnel are seldom if ever fired, and their performance to expectations is rarely tested in detail nor is in a constant struggle to meet expectations of clients to whom they are answerable, as are free-market service providers. If we want public health, and we hire ‘professionals’ to do it, we need accountability through the elected and appointed executive officers. When an incumbent-dominated political party (no term limits), selecting from a limited array of ‘whose turn it is’ well-funded insiders (former LGov’s, recent Ways&Means chairs, past congressionals) is the only slate of candidates for the voting public … accountability fades into effectively unchallenged ‘privilege,’ and the citizenry suffers. And now we have yet another ‘walk-on’ congressional, per our one-newspaper town’s media? This type of DoH failure is baked in the cake.
The Hawai’i State Ethics Commission has a new on-line complaint form. If you (or anyone else) believe that a state official has abused her/his position or has otherwise violated the Ethics Code, please contact the Ethics Commission: https://ethics.hawaii.gov/hsec_complaint/
Good point – don’t complain, file a complaint! Will do, and I do raise issues through channels, though a lot of what I’m calling neglect of duty would not qualify as an ‘ethics’ violation. I’m making the general point that the current way our government is working militates against top-notch performance and this is not easy to change.
Governor Ige and Mayor Caldwell would seem to be good candidates – along with Espinda, Anderson, and Park. Heck – where to begin?
Thanks, Ian. The report is great. I expect that it will be widely circulated and discussed, and hope that it leads to action in this case and more such investigations of other deserving agencies. They are certainly warranted. I remember when the relentless Marion Higa was Auditor and malefactors used to quake in their boots–or slippers–at the mere mention of her name. The fact that inquiries from Leslie Kondo?s office obviously failed to inspire that response from up and down the DOH chain of command was not a good sign. This report, I hope, will change that attitude.
It’s so sad & telling that Hawaii has allowed this level of incompetency to exist for so many yrs.! But during a national pandemic when lives are at risk..most people still “believe” their appointed &elected officials will do good for the public! Why has our state perpetuated such lies &misinformation because the Health Dept couldn’t or wouldn’t report the “truth”? Our citizens should be more than outraged at this evolving but unnecessary pandemic falsehoods perpetuated by our state gov’t officials?All those involved with this lack of transparency should be held accountable for each and every death that occurs in our State!
This is a test of the commenting system by Blaine