Challenges risks cited at Interior

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Facebook Twitter Email
JANUARY 18, 2001

Coinciding with the introduction of a new administration, the General Accounting Office (GAO) on Wednesday cited several major challenges and risks facing Gale Norton should she be confirmed as Secretary of Interior.

Responsible for maintaining the nation's natural resources and honoring the government's commitments to American Indians and Alaska Natives, the Department of Interior faces four major "performance and accountability challenges," according to the report prepared for Congress. Included is the Department's often troubled history of financial mismanagement of Indian funds.

"Although the Department of the Interior manages over $3 billion in Indian trust funds and over $1.8 billion in budgeted resources for tribes, it cannot assure trust account holders that their balances are accurate or that their assets are being properly managed," says the GAO.

As early as 1987, Congress has attempted to reform the Interior's management of trust funds, achieving some success for its accounts held by tribes. But it took a billion-dollar lawsuit before the Interior last year began to address its Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts, representing almost 500,000 Native Americans throughout the country.

Even so, "significant" hurdles still remain, according to the GAO. The report cites poor record-keeping, inexperienced staff, inadequate policies, and backlogs of tasks as some of the problems impeding full accountability of IIM monies.

But the GAO says not just IIM accounts are in trouble. Tribes seeking to obtain funds to support self-determination contracts -- thereby managing health, education, and other programs locally -- might not always find them due to budget shortfalls the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Since 1995, the BIA has been consistently failing to provide support funding for self-determination contracts, reaching a high of about $25 million in 1995. Last year, the shortfall amounted to about $15 million, resulting not only in Congress contemplating moratoriums on funding, as they did in 1999, but also in loss of services to tribal members.

"According to tribes, these shortfalls have either forced a reduction in the services available to tribal members or caused tribes to use their own limited resources, thereby prohibiting the further development of tribal businesses or supplemental services," says the GAO.

Besides problems affecting tribes, the GAO also called on the Interior to improvement management of national parks, ecosystem restoration efforts, and its expanding land base.

Get the Report:
Major Management and Program Risks, Department of Interior (GAO-01-249 January 2001)

Relevant Links:
The Department of Interior - www.doi.gov
Trust Management Improvement Project, BIA - www.doi.gov/bia/trust/tmip.htm
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Babbitt - www.indiantrust.org

Only on Indianz.Com:
The Trust Fund Fiasco (Smoke Signals 1999)