Bureau of Indian Affairs

Through its social services program, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offers assistance to individual Indians and tribes. GAO found that two of these services, involving payments for welfare and the burial of indigents, are plagued by unjustified, improper, and inconsistent payments and are ripe for fraud and waste. These problems stem from weak internal controls--some as basic as inadequate supervision, failure to separate employee duties, and poor computer security. Similar problems have been repeatedly identified in BIA's social services program for more than a decade. The long-standing nature of internal control weaknesses and ineffective BIA efforts in the past to correct them indicate that an overall management commitment at all levels will be needed if an effective system of controls is to be established. Recent congressional initiatives to address persistent accounting and internal control weaknesses in BIA's management of Indian trust funds and the Office of Audit and Evaluation will need management support at all levels if these initiatives are to succeed. To ensure full management support, increased congressional oversight may be warranted.

GAO found that, in the general assistance program component, BIA: (1) did not document whether assistance recipients were also receiving assistance through the Aid to Families with Dependent Children or Supplemental Security Income programs; (2) made multiple payments to the same individual; (3) inconsistently computed prorated payments, due to area offices' different interpretations of BIA guidance; and (4) does not adequately control access to its computerized payment system or properly separate the duties of program staff, making the system vulnerable to fraud and waste. GAO also found that, in the burial assistance program component, BIA: (1) did not verify or document the available resources of decedents before approving assistance payments; and (2) inconsistently required documentation and allowed different levels of compensation for burial expenses. In addition, GAO found that BIA: (1) has not established or maintained key internal controls for either program component regarding eligibility determinations, employee supervision, computer system access, or payment reviews; (2) has not successfully corrected long-standing internal control weaknesses and has reprogrammed quality control staff resources for other program purposes; and (3) needs to take immediate corrective action to resolve those weaknesses and demonstrate an agencywide commitment to establishing and maintaining effective internal controls.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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