No Bid, No Problem? Hawaiian Telcom Lands A $25 Million State Broadband Contract … Gov. David Ige says he wasn’t involved in the deal with a major campaign donor. But it’s raising questions about whether the contract should have been competitively bid.

Gov. David Ige’s administration has awarded a $25 million no-bid contract to Hawaiian Telcom to deliver broadband to eight underserved areas of the state after Hawaiian Telcom submitted an unsolicited proposal for the project to the state Department of Transportation.

The unusual contract raises questions about whether Ige had any role in the deal because the governor worked for Hawaiian Telcom for 18 years, and for a time was the company’s lobbyist. He has also received nearly $18,000 in campaign donations from Hawaiian Telcom in the past decade.

But a spokeswoman for Ige said the governor was not involved in the procurement exemption in any way, and did not discuss the matter with Hawaiian Telcom staff or executives before the award.

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