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AIMD/OGC-95-237R 1 (1995-09-29)

handle is hein.gao/gaobackyk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Accounting and Information Management Division B-266064 September 29, 1995 Congressional Committees The purpose of this letter is to provide draft legislation, American Indian Tribal Trust Fund Reconciliation Act of 1995, for your consideration. In March 1995, we testified' before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies on the status of the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) efforts to reconcile Indian trust fund accounts. We discussed reconciliation problems, including missing zecords, that will prevent BIA from fully reconciling the accounts and suggested that the time had come for the Congress to consider legislating a settlement process to resolve disputes over tribal trust fund account balances. To date, BIA has spent over 4 years and about $20 million attempting to reconcile tribal trust fund accounts from 1973 through 1992. In response to our testimony, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Committee on Resources, Subcommittee on Native American and Insular Affairs asked us to prepare draft legislation for discussion purposes. As you know, the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 requires the Secretary of the Interior to submit a report to these Committees by May 31, 1996, on the results of the reconciliation. This report is to include, among other things, attestations by account holders that they accept the balances in the reconciled account statements or that they dispute the balances along with the reasons for their dispute, and an explanation of the efforts the Secretary plans to take to resolve the disputes. The draft legislation that we have enclosed would establish a process for resolving disputed account balances, including mediated negotiation and binding arbitration. In drafting this legislation, we referred to guidance from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and rules of the American Arbitration Association. 'Financial Manauement: Indian Trust Fund Accounts CanQt __ Fully Reconciled (GAO/AIMD-T-95-94, March 8, 1995). GAO/AIMD/OGC-95-237R Indian Trust Fund Settlement Legislation

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