Financial Management
Status of BIA's Efforts to Reconcile Indian Trust Fund Accounts and Implement Management Improvements Gao ID: T-AIMD-94-99 April 12, 1994The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is continuing its efforts to reconcile Indian trust fund accounts and to obtain an independent certification on the results of the reconciliation. After 3 years, BIA's reconciliation contractor has nearly finished the first of eight major tribal reconciliation tasks and a certification contractor is on board. Yet overall progress has been slow and BIA has yet to address many critical, long-standing trust fund management problems that have affected proper control and accountability over trust fund accounts. BIA has been criticized for erroneous allocations of receipts, erroneous payments to account holders, failure to consistently invest trust fund balances, and failure to pay interest. Tribes and individual Indians continue to express concern about the accuracy of BIA's accounting for trust fund receipts and disbursements and the effectiveness of BIA's investment practices. Past audits and GAO's current work on BIA trust funds management continue to show (1) the lack of a strategic plan to guide trust fund management in the future, (2) inadequate staffing and training, (3) a lack of consistent, written trust fund management policies and procedures, and (4) inadequate systems for ensuring reliable accounting and reporting. GAO makes several recommendations aimed at ensuring better control and accountability over Indian trust funds. GAO continues to urge BIA to develop a strategic management plan for improving Indian trust fund operations.
RecommendationsOur 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.
Director: Team: Phone:
