Hawaii may have got a decent overall grade in the State Integrity Investigation, if you think a C is something worth bragging about.
But when it came to the 14 specific categories of “Corruption Risk Indicators,” Hawaii fared worse than most other states in at least five.
Here are the state’s three worst rankings:
- 38th – State Budget Process Hawaii’s budget process isn’t as open as in most states.
- 37th – State Insurance Commission We have an insurance commissioner appointed by the governor. Senior staff’s financial disclosures are not public.
- 31st – Judicial Accountability Hawaii’s judicial officials are not as transparent or accountable as in most other states.
To be sure, there were areas where Hawaii scored well, such as for the transparency of political financing, which earned Hawaii a 3rd place rank. But overall, Hawaii ranked 44th when it came to what’s known as the enforcement gap, the gap between what’s written in law and what happens in practice.
Read more about Hawaii’s rankings.
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