Honolulu, HAWAII — In part 2 of their investigation of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, Civil Beat Hawaii looked at conflicts of interest on how funds are awarded through the Sustainable Fisheries Fund and how the money spent rests squarely in the hands of Westpac director, Kitty Simonds.
In part 3, Civil Beat charges that oversight of Westpac is characterized as “lax” and reports questions about whether NOAA itself is doing an adequate job overseeing Westpac.
LAX OVERSIGHT OF THE FUND
Civil Beat interviewed current and former council members who say that Simonds informs the committee what projects she intends to fund based on where the quota-sharing money is supposed to go.
“We’re given a broad brush view of it,” Sensui said. “We don’t go into detail.”
The committee members provide some feedback but it’s left to council staff and territory officials to decide who should do the work. The proposed projects and grant requests do not go to the full council for approval before they’re submitted to Tosatto at NOAA.
“I don’t recall any decision-making in either executive committee of the council or the council full body,” said Tosatto, who also is a voting member of the full council. “At the end of the day, (Simonds) is the award recipient and that decision is hers to make.”
Tosatto and Mark Mitsuyasu, Wespac’s program director, said grants coming out of the Sustainable Fisheries Fund are referenced in reports from the council’s executive and budget committee. But they said there is little if any discussion about the grants or the projects they fund at full council meetings.
Mitsuyasu also said the executive and budget committee reports are not available on Wespac’s website even though they are presented publicly at meetings.
Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources Director Suzanne Case, the state’s representative on the council and a full voting member, told Civil Beat she is only loosely aware of the Sustainable Fisheries Fund.
Even though she’s briefed on all the meetings by her designee who attends and receives all the agendas and correspondence, she’s never seen any information on the fund let alone been asked to review or approve projects.
She said there “absolutely” should be transparency and input on the fund.
“If it’s funding work by Wespac, it should be an open agenda item — whatever it’s being spent on,” she said. “It’s legitimate business of the council and should be being discussed.”
Rick Gaffney, a sports fisherman from the Big Island and former Wespac council member, said council members who are not directly involved in the executive and budget committee may not have been aware of the fund and how the money is being used.
“Unfortunately, the work of the executive and budget committee is often undertaken either behind closed doors, or in the waning hours of a long, complex council meeting, when few of the council members present are fully attentive to the matters at hand and the public has already left the building,” he said.
“If it is being utilized to fund council member’s projects there needs to be significant oversight of that decision-making process and in reviewing the end products of those expenditures,” Gaffney said.
Much of the money, particularly when the fund was fueled by penalties on illegal fishing, has been given out as sole-source contracts with no check on whether work could have been done by others not connected to the council.
Tosatto said that while federal contracting rules don’t apply to the grants Wespac hands out, the council is encouraged to follow federal best practices. That would mean getting three bids for each project and making the award based on considerations of cost, experience and other factors.
But there are no records that would indicate Wespac follows a competitive bid process and Tosatto acknowledged that NOAA does not follow up on whether the contracts are being appropriately awarded.
Mitsuyasu, Wespac’s program director, could not recall any contract that was competitively bid but said he would check the council’s files. He said local officials in the territories are involved in the spending decisions along with Wespac staff.
It’s also not clear if members of the executive committee are pushing their own projects in the committee. NOAA’s legal counsel is present to provide advice on whether recusals are required, Tosatto said.
He’s also concerned about conflicts of interest if executive committee members and council members in general are involved in approving contracts that benefit themselves or their organizations and businesses.
‘GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF IT’
Tosatto is aware that questions are being asked by congressmen and others about Wespac’s handling of the fund. Implicit in those inquiries are concerns over whether NOAA itself is doing an adequate job overseeing Wespac.
He says NOAA is working on a response to questions about potential conflicts of interest and matters of policy concerning the use of the fund.
Tosatto said those questions include whether someone receiving an award should then be appointed to the council; whether a current council member should be allowed to receive a contract from the fund; and if it’s OK for federal projects to go to someone married to a NOAA employee.
For Ed Case, who served in Congress more than a decade ago but was elected again in November, ensuring that Wespac and NOAA are adequately managing important fisheries and marine resources is a fight he is eager to take on.
“From my perspective I am deeply concerned about the health of our world’s oceans. I think they’re under mortal risk right now,” he said.
Wespac has a vital role in protecting the oceans and he’s not convinced the council is following the intent of the Magnuson-Stevens Act when it comes to sustainability.
“It’s telling that the overall council does not have any insights into the use of the funds and that it is a very tightly controlled fund, which always makes you concerned about essentially a slush fund that’s available only to a few to achieve purposes that are themselves mysterious,” Case said. “So it’s a great concern that we don’t know what’s going on.”
Getting answers to those questions in the face of Simonds’ reluctance to open up the Sustainable Fisheries Fund’s records to deeper scrutiny may take much stronger congressional oversight. Case, who sits on the House subcommittee that oversees NOAA, says he’s prepared to pursue that.
He says he is working closely with Schatz and that both want to see how NOAA and Wespac respond to inquiries that are being made before calling for a full-blown federal investigation.
“We’re both committed to getting to the bottom of it,” Case said.
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