Indian Trust Funds

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the status of account holders' responses to the Department of the Interior's tribal trust fund reconciliation project results. GAO obtained but did not independently verify the information on the status of account holders' responses provided or previously reported by the Office of the Special Trustee (OST).

GAO noted that: (1) as of May 6, 1997, Interior had sent reports on reconciliation results to 310 account holders whose tribal trust fund accounts contained balances between July 1, 1973, and September 30, 1995; (2) Interior asked those account holders to return attestation statements indicating whether the account holders accept or dispute the reconciliation results; (3) Interior previously reported to the Congress the status of tribal trust fund account holders' responses as of April 30, 1996, and as of November 1, 1996; (4) information obtained from OST indicates that of the 310 account holders to which Interior sent reconciliation reports, 139 had responded to Interior as of May 6, 1997; and (5) of the account holders that responded, 41 accepted the reconciliation results, 51 disputed the reconciliation results, and 47 requested more time or a meeting with OST officials to consider whether to accept or dispute the reconciliation results.