Haw. Rev. Stat. § 23-5

This is the official text of Haw. Rev. Stat. § 23-5, part of Hawaii’s Rev. Stat — part of the compiled statutory law of Hawaii, published by the state as "Rev. Stat." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Auditor; powers.

Official statutory text

(a) The auditor may examine and inspect all accounts, books, records, files, papers, and documents and all financial affairs of every department, office, agency, and political subdivision; provided that:

(1) Upon written request by the auditor, the department of taxation shall provide to the auditor access to tax returns but only to the extent necessary and relevant to the scope of the comprehensive annual financial report audit of the State; and

(2) Tax return information provided to the auditor by the department of taxation pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be considered working papers of the auditor pursuant to section 23-9.5.

(b) The auditor may cause search to be made and extracts to be taken from any account, book, file, paper, record, or document in the custody of any public officer without paying any fee for the same; and every officer having the custody of the accounts, books, records, files, papers, and documents shall make such search and furnish such extracts as thereto requested.

(c) The auditor may issue:

(1) Subpoenas compelling at a specified time and place the appearance and sworn testimony of any person whom the auditor reasonably believes may be able to provide information relating to any audit or other investigation undertaken pursuant to this chapter; and

(2) Subpoenas duces tecum compelling the production of accounts, books, records, files, papers, documents, or other evidence, which the auditor reasonably believes may relate to an audit or other investigation being conducted under this chapter.

Upon application by the auditor, obedience to the subpoena may be enforced by the circuit court in the county in which the person subpoenaed resides or is found in the same manner as a subpoena issued by the clerk of the circuit court. [L Sp 1959 1st, c 14, pt of §1; Supp, §2-33; HRS §23-5; gen ch 1985; am L 2000, c 275, §1; am L 2014, c 136, §2]

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.