Financial Management: BIA's Management of the Indian Trust Funds
(Testimony, 09/27/93, GAO/T-AIMD-93-4).

Since April 1991, GAO has testified six times before Congress on the
Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) management of the Indian trust funds and
its efforts to reconcile and audit the trust fund accounts.  BIA manages
about $2 billion in tribal money that has accumulated from payments of
claims, oil and gas royalties, land use agreements, and investment
income.  Over the years, countless audit reports and internal studies
have cited a litany of serious problems in BIA's oversight of these
accounts.  BIA's record has been so poor, in fact, that the Office of
Management and Budget has placed trust fund accounting on its high-risk
list of government programs most vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse.
This testimony discusses (1) the status of BIA's efforts to overcome its
past problems; (2) problems that still need to be addressed; and (3)
provisions in H.R. 1846, the Native American Trust Fund Accounting and
Management Reform Act of 1993, that can help BIA resolve some of these
matters.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-AIMD-93-4
     TITLE:  Financial Management: BIA's Management of the Indian Trust 
             Funds
      DATE:  09/27/93
   SUBJECT:  Trust funds
             Financial management
             Federal agency accounting systems
             Financial records
             Funds management
             Internal controls
             Accounting procedures
             Indian lands
             Accountability
             Fund audits
IDENTIFIER:  Native American Trust Fund Accounting and Management Reform 
             Act of 1993
             Indian Trust Fund
             
------------------------------------------------------------------------

We regret that electronic text of GAO Testimony is not available at 
this time. 

See the GAO FAQ - Section 2.0 for printed copy ordering information.
The FAQ is automatically retrieved with all WAIS search results or 
can be obtained by sending e-mail to: [email protected]