Two weeks ago, Hawai'i's chief procurement officer nixed a plan by the state Defense Department to buy "homeland security equipment" without competitive bidding, from a company called Fisher Scientific in Illinois.

That decision has stalled plans by the state and the counties to spend "millions of dollars" in federal grant money, said Thomas Moriyasu, fiscal officer of the Defense Department.

It's also called into question the legality of millions more in spending that's already been done through Fisher Scientific, although Moriyasu said that the state procurement office had initially approved such purchasing back in 2004.

For the time being, Moriyasu said, "all the state agencies and the counties have been told to put everything on hold," he continued.

Last year, the city of Honolulu spent $8.2 million through Fisher Scientific, according to city records, including $871,000 for the new Terrorism Prevention Command Center unveiled by Police Chief Boisse Correa last week.

Officers in HPD's Homeland Security Division said state officials recommended Fisher Scientific, which in turn brought in the company that actually built the command center, GTSI Corp.

Phase one of the command center features two video wall displays of six 50-inch television screens.

More is coming, including video feeds from officers in the field and aloft in HPD's helicopter, Correa said.

Fisher Scientific is a "prime vendor" of security-related equipment to the federal government and other state and local agencies.

Since the money comes from federal homeland security grants, it must be spent within a certain amount of time or the funds are lost, said HPD.

Use of the "prime vendor" system makes for quicker and more efficient spending on goods and services that have already been preapproved as to price and quality, HPD said.

Those are the same arguments made to Hawai'i procurement chief Aaron Fujioka last month by Moriyasu in seeking approval of the new state purchasing deal with Fisher Scientific.

Fujioka said no, that there's enough flexibility in the grants to allow for more competition in how the money is spent.

State law also allows for emergency non-bid purchasing when the situation warrants it, he added.

If you know that a particular money trail will lead to boondoggle, excessive spending or white elephants, reach Jim Dooley at 535-2447 or jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com