The Oahu university planned a benefit concert for the athletic department at the campus’ Stan Sheriff Center Aug. 18 and paid the deposit to an unauthorized agency in Florida that claimed it could bring Wonder to Hawaii for cheaper than through his longtime agency, CAA.

Soon, the university was informed Wonder did not know of the gig and the deposit was lost, and it appeared several of those at the center of the blunder would be punished, including Athletic Director Jim Donovan.

Not so, said University President M.R.C. Greenwood, who testified during a Senate Special Committee on Accountability hearing Sept. 24.

“We were given strong advice to put him back (as athletic director) or there will be consequences,” Greenwood said, according to the Star-Advertiser.

Asked where the pressure came from, Greenwood said her “job is on the line,” and specified that Gov. Neil Abercrombie offered advice on “the best action to take.”

Greenwood also insisted the concert fiasco was not a “systematic problem” and asked lawmakers to allow a task force to continue investigating the incident so it will not happen again in the future, the local KITV News said.

“We really had the perfect storm here. We were taken advantage of by this situation,” Greenwood said. “We had employees who were under extreme pressure by outside forces to release the money. They made a mistake in pushing to move the money when they did not have things in place that should have been in place and I apologize for that, but that is what happened.”

Sen. Donna Mercado-Kim apparently disagreed with that sentiment.

“We’re not talking about a small entity or a fly-by-night entity. We’re talking about the University of Hawaii that has highly paid attorneys, highly paid staff and a whole fiscal department. Yet there were a number of policies that were violated and this could have been stopped along the way,” she said.

But Donovan’s testimony raised questions about whether the situation could in fact have been stopped.

The athletic director, who was moved to a desk job after an external investigation found no wrongdoing on his behalf, told the committee he was out of town and did not authorize the transfer of the $200,000, the Star-Advertiser reported.

“The fact that we wired the money to a company that we didn’t have a contract with … just blows my mind,” he said.

Senators also sought testimony from Dennis Chong Kee of the Kades Shutte law firm, which conducted the external investigation, to determine the whereabouts of the concert deposit, the paper said.

However, Chong Kee explained he did not investigate what happened beyond the wire transfer of the $200,000 to a Florida bank.

“I don’t know where the money went after the university wired it,” he said.

The senate committee is scheduled to reconvene Oct. 2 and will reportedly hear from Stan Sheriff Center GM Rich Sheriff and former university chancellor Virginia Hinshaw.