Five nonbid Department of Hawaiian Home Lands consultant contracts worth $7.3 million were awarded in 2003-04 to an engineering firm by department employees with past ties to the company, possibly violating a state procurement law enacted by Gov. Linda Lingle's administration to combat cronyism.

Community Planning and Engineering Inc. was awarded the contracts by a DHHL selection committee that included two new department employees recommended for their government jobs by Community Planning officials, according to records and interviews. The third member of the committee had previously worked for the company.

Based in part on experience gained under the first five contracts, the company later received six more nonbid DHHL jobs worth an additional $7.6 million.

The 50-year-old consulting firm is headed by Republican fundraiser and contributor Joseph G. Pickard, who purchased it in 2003, at which point the company began winning DHHL consultant contracts.

Pickard, his family members and business interests have been donors to Lingle's campaigns and the Hawai'i Republican Party, giving more than $70,000 to the GOP and the campaigns of Lingle and Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona since 1998, according to records of the state Campaign Spending Commission and the Federal Election Commission.