Hawai'i Attorney General Mark Bennett is passing on a state Senate investigative committee's recommendation that he appoint a special counsel who would examine whether state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism officials intentionally broke state procurement laws.

Instead, Bennett has referred the matter to the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney's office to make a determination as to whether or not criminal charges are warranted for director Ted Liu and three others in a controversy over the awarding of an $8.7 million state contract.

The investigative committee last month released a report that concluded Liu sought to manipulate the procurement process in awarding the contract to the lowest-ranked bidder. It asked Bennett to appoint a special counsel since the state Attorney General's office had a potential conflict of interest in that it provided legal advice and represented witnesses during some of the 56 hours of testimony given during committee hearings.

Bennett said he decided to forward the request because appointing a special counsel might not end conflict-of-interest questions.

"Indeed, were I to make such an appointment, and were the person appointed to make a final determination with which the authors of the report disagreed, they might well claim that appointment process itself was flawed or biased in some way, or that the person appointed was unqualified or an otherwise inappropriate choice," Bennett said in a letter to state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa.