Scandal. Corruption. Conspiracy.

Those words have made frequent appearances in headlines and news stories during the past couple of years — and even more recently — as wrongdoing at the state and local levels of government has been exposed.

Making sure such issues don’t happen boils down to accountability. Keeping government accountable includes having policies and procedures in place to allow tips and complaints to be made and follow-up investigations and audits to happen, when warranted, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Two hotlines that are part of a pilot program and a proposed amendment to the Hawai‘i County Charter that will appear on this year’s general election ballot are aimed at doing just that.

The two hotlines — one for whistleblowers and reports of abuse and the other for tips about fraud and waste — were established at the Office of the County Auditor earlier this year. The pilot program runs through June 30, 2023.

To date, according to county Auditor Tyler Benner, his office has fielded 22 calls. While he can’t say much about the contents of those calls, generally speaking, there’s been a large learning curve. People were calling about issues that had other avenues to satisfy their questions.

“As the line has gained some understanding,” however, Benner told Big Island Now, “we’ve had calls that are directed more towards the intent of the line.”

There are policies and procedures, document templates and additional infrastructure that the auditor’s...

Read Full Story: https://bigislandnow.com/2022/07/28/pilot-whistleblower-hotlines-up-and-runni...