Auditor calls out OHA for lax and risky real-estate planning
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has been building its real estate portfolio over the past couple of decades to the point where it is now the 13th-largest landowner in Hawaii with holdings valued at more than $421 million.
A new state audit, however, has found that OHA’s approach to real estate has been “ad hoc” and “risky,” absent of a strategy and other policies necessary to help guide the agency into making wise decisions, maximizing its resources and minimizing risk to its trust assets.
“It all goes back to needing to protect the beneficiaries,” state Auditor Les Kondo said Tuesday in an interview.
