OIG report looks into land-into-trust consortium

Thursday, December 13, 2007  

A September 2006 from the Office of Inspector General at the Department of the Interior looked into the California Fee to Trust Consortium.

Tribes created the consortium to speed up review of their land-into-trust applications. According to the report, at least 60 tribes have paid about $5.5 million for salaries of Bureau of Indian Affairs employees and for other costs.

The effort resulted in more than 11,000 acres placed in trust since 2000, the report said. But the agreement for the consortium was never reviewed by the Office of the Solicitor at DOI and a section about the legality of the consortium was blacked out in the report released under a Freedom of Information Act request.

The report said the consortium has near complete control of the BIA employees who review the applications. Some tribes who paid more receive more attention, according to the OIG.

Get the Story:
California tribes paying salaries of feds reviewing land applications (Capitol Weekly 12/13)

$rl Office of Inspector General - http://www.doioig.gov