When the University of Hawai'i regents finally picked a developer in 2005 for a new student housing project on the Manoa campus, regent Jane Tatibouet made one of those come-back-to-haunt-you comments.

"I want people to look at this decision and say, 'Finally, UH has its act together,' " she said.

Last week, state Auditor Marion Higa ripped into the university's handling of the project, saying the procurement process was so flawed that the contract probably should be canceled and that the $71 million price tag may be more than $20 million too high.

The university hotly disputed Higa's findings. But in some respects, the institution got off lightly.

For one thing, the audit did not note that the project is already a year behind its original completion date of summer 2007. It's now supposed to be done by mid-2008, and the new audit calls that schedule "ambitious."

For another, Higa's criticisms of the project centered on actions taken by the university well after the original selection of a developer was made.

But there were questions about how the winning development team was picked in the first place.

After months of delays, the regents rejected the findings of a team of six UH officials and a private consultant that the "best qualified" bidder was a partnership of two firms, Actus Lend Lease and Allen & O'Hara Development Co.

Instead, the regents picked a different firm, American Campus Communities of Texas.

William Harris, president of Allen & O'Hara, said at the time that he was "dumbfounded" by the decision and suspected that part of the reason was an anonymous letter sent to the regents that made false allegations about his company and Actus.

The university said the letter was found "to have no basis" in fact and did not figure in the ultimate selection.

The new Higa audit tracks what happened after that. The original bidding involved a "public-private" partnership in which UH provided the land and the developer financed, designed, built and possibly managed the housing.

Then UH changed plans, expanding the size of the project and switching it to the more traditional publicly financed, publicly operated facility.

Higa argued that the latter change was so significant as to warrant cancellation of the contract and rebidding it.

She said UH originally favored bidders that had at least five years of experience in the public-private form of projects with the fiscal clout to provide private financing. Then after it picked a winner, UH switched to a project that many other firms potentially could have bid on.

A CLARIFICATION:

Last week I reported that state House clerk Paul Kawaguchi collected full pay and his pension from 2004 through 2006 by retiring and then coming back to work under a series of 89-day contracts.

Kawaguchi was paid full salary (more than $7,000 a month) while the Legislature was in session and half salary during the remaining eight months of the year. And he collected his pension the entire time.

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