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Veteran-Owned Business Preference — There Is None in the Procurement Code

The public procurement code creates its preferences by name, and no name on the list is a veteran. There is no veteran-owned or service-disabled veteran-owned set-aside, certification or bid preference in state procurement.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: No veteran preference exists in state procurement

Part X of the procurement code enumerates its preferences one by one: Hawaii products; printing, binding and stationery work; reciprocity; recycled products; software development businesses; taxpayer preference; qualified community rehabilitation programs; biofuel; and accounting service businesses. A veteran-owned business is not among them.
Part IX, Assistance to Small Businesses, directs the policy board to adopt set-asides and subcontracting criteria for small businesses generally. §103D-906 creates no veteran category within that.
The State Procurement Office’s own Preferences page, read the same session, describes the Hawaii products preference and the reciprocal preference law and links Part X and the preference rules. It names no veteran preference either.

This record exists to correct a myth. This is an absence established from the enumerating provision, not a failure to find something. Part X of the code names each preference it creates, the office that administers procurement publishes the same list, and neither contains a veteran. That is a stronger finding than silence.

Who is entitled to it

This record is about what state procurement does and does not offer a veteran-owned business.
Your home is in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

1Do not build a bid strategy around a state veteran set-aside. There is not one to register for, and no state certification to obtain.
2Federal contracting is a separate system with its own veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned programmes. Nothing here affects those, and a federal certification carries no weight in a state solicitation.
3Look instead at the preferences that do exist and that a veteran-owned firm can meet on ordinary terms — the Hawaii products preference and the small business set-asides under Part IX are open to any qualifying business.
4If a bid document or a broker tells you a state veteran preference applies, ask which section of chapter 103D creates it. Part X lists them all by name.

File with: Nothing to claim from the State on this ground
No renewal: Once granted it does not need renewing.

CorrectionThis is an absence established from the enumerating provision, not a failure to find something. Part X of the code names each preference it creates, the office that administers procurement publishes the same list, and neither contains a veteran. That is a stronger finding than silence.

Worth knowing§103D-906 does require set-asides for small businesses, and a veteran-owned firm that is small can use them — but on the same terms as any other small business. The interim rules for that preference expired, which the office’s own circular notes.

Known gapOnly the state code was read. The four counties run their own purchasing under the same chapter, and none of their vendor pages was opened this session. A county-level veteran provision, if one exists, would not appear in what was read here.

Sources

authority · statuteHRS chapter 103D — Hawaii Public Procurement Code, table of contents (Part IX Assistance to Small Businesses; Part X Preferences, §§103D-1001 to 103D-1013)
operating · published policyState Procurement Office — Preferences (the office’s own list of what preferences exist)

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