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Subcontractors urge retainage transparency; committee backs resolution on procurement transparency
Summary
The Subcontractors Association told the House Committee on Labor that retainage and delayed payments are harming small contractors; the committee recommended SCR 178 urging procurement transparency tools and passed the recommendation.
Timothy Lyons, legislative chair for the Subcontractors Association of Hawaii, testified in support of SCR 178, a resolution encouraging procurement transparency and prompting agencies to adopt prompt-payment retainage reporting tools.
Lyons explained retainage practices and said DAGS (Department of Accounting and General Services) maintains a prompt-payment retainage flowchart that has helped subcontractors see who received payments. He told the committee that when members reported withheld amounts, they ranged “from $250 to over $3 million,” with a short-period total of about $12 million. Lyons said the resolution asks other procurement agencies to adopt similar prompt-payment or retainage websites to improve transparency and reduce disputes.
Support testimony from several trade associations and DAGS was noted in the hearing. The committee’s recommendation to pass SCR 178 was adopted during decision-making; the transcript records the recommendation was adopted but does not provide a full roll-call tally for the measure.
