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JUNE 14, 2001

Bureau of Indian Affairs nominee Neal McCaleb on Wednesday promised that a problem which has plagued the government for more than one hundred years can be fixed within just four.

But attorney Dennis Gingold, who is representing the plaintiffs in the class action suit involving an estimated 300,000 American Indian account holders, discounted McCaleb's notion of a seemingly quick solution. Gingold said McCaleb is just promising what has been promised by Interior nominee after nominee.

After the hearing, McCaleb told Indianz.Com there have been a number of misstarts in the government's attempt to fix the system. Specifically, he noted that TAAMS (Trust Assets and Accounting Management System), the state-of-the-art computer system which the BIA says will automate its acocunting processes, hasn't met its expectations.

Pitches an off-the-shelf solution that only needed minimal tweaking to make it useful for the BIA, McCaleb said that instead it has turned into a full customization job. McCaleb pointed out that General Accounting Office (GAO) reports have confirmed problems with TAAMS.

However, he said he did not favor re-doing the Department of Interior's High Level Implementation Plan (HLIP). Relying on previously confidential memos within the Interior which stated trust reform was "imploding," the plaintiffs have called on the government to scrap the nearly three-year-old plan.

Get the Story:
BIA Nominee Vows 'Quick' Trust Fund Resolution (AP 6/14)

Relevant Links:
Trust Management Improvement Project - http://www.doi.gov/bia/trust/tmip.htm
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com

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