Monday, July 24, 2006
Indian Trust Funds Scandal...Another One!
The Indian Trust Funds have been scandal-wracked for a long time, now. Billions of dollars are unaccounted for; records have disappeared, been shredded, destroy by water damage, and nobody knows just where that money went...It’s like some the accounting practices in some banana republic. Time after time, federal judges have ordered the Bureau of Indian Affairs to come up with some sort of explanation; more than one Secretary of the Interior has been cited for contempt of court for not providing an accounting. But nothing changes. Indians have been getting worked over since before the American Republic was founded. They still are. It’s a disgrace. We’re all disgraced by this.
US News & World Report
Interior Report: Indian trust officials violated ethics rules in contract awards
By Edward T. Pound
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060723/23newostindian.htm
Posted 7/23/06
In a blistering report, the Interior Department's top investigator says that senior officials who manage $3.2 billion in Indian trust funds pressured subordinates to award lucrative contracts to executives with whom the officials enjoyed close social ties.
According to the report, officials in the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST), based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, often partied with executives of an Albuquerque accounting firm, Chavarria, Dunne & Lamey LLC. The officials and executives played golf together and exchanged gifts of meals and drinks over an eight-year period. During this time, the report says, the Chavarria firm won $6.6 million in sole source contracts.
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US News & World Report
Interior Report: Indian trust officials violated ethics rules in contract awards
By Edward T. Pound
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060723/23newostindian.htm
Posted 7/23/06
In a blistering report, the Interior Department's top investigator says that senior officials who manage $3.2 billion in Indian trust funds pressured subordinates to award lucrative contracts to executives with whom the officials enjoyed close social ties.
According to the report, officials in the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST), based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, often partied with executives of an Albuquerque accounting firm, Chavarria, Dunne & Lamey LLC. The officials and executives played golf together and exchanged gifts of meals and drinks over an eight-year period. During this time, the report says, the Chavarria firm won $6.6 million in sole source contracts.
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