HONOLULU, Hawaii — Officials with the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, tell Federal officials they may have overpaid residents and land owners along commuter railroad right-of-way and are prepared to forfeit as much as $3.8 million in future funding from the Federal government.

The online news site Civilbeat.org reports that HART officials have been looking into relocation and compensation payments to property owners and residents along the right-of-way of Honolulu's commuter rail system and found mathematical errors and missing documents in the files used to justify payments. The $3.8-million figure is the amount of money received from the Federal Transit Administration to help the project proceed. Any excessive payments may in violation of Federal law, the news site reports. As a solution, authority officials say they'll give up as much as the granted amount in future awards.

The Hawaiian authority has paid more than $13 million in recent years to compensate land owners for crossing their land or to help relocate residents whose homes would be affected by the rail line's construction. It's not clear from reporting, however, how much or how often the authority may have overpaid.

See the original article online.