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B-272979 1 (1996-08-23)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabloi0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 




GAO             United States
                General Accounting Office
                Washington, D.C. 20548

                Office of the General Counsel




                B-272979


                August 23, 1996



                The Honorable Kent Conrad
                United States Senate

                Dear Senator Conrad:

                This letter responds to a telephone inquiry from your staff regarding a claim by the
                Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The Tribe claims lost
                interest earnings on a payment made by the United States into the Three Affiliated
                Tribes Economic Recovery Fund pursuant to the Three Affiliated Tribes and
                Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Equitable Compensation Act, Public Law 102-575.
                According to the Tribe, the loss resulted from a delay by the United States in
                depositing the payment into the Economic Recovery Fund. The Tribe argues that
                the payment, which was deposited into the Fund on January 29, 1996, could have
                been deposited on December 13, 1995. Your staff asked us for our opinion on the
                Tribe's claim. Because federal law authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to pay
                interest only on amounts held in the Fund, we conclude that the Tribe is not
                entitled to any interest that the Fund might have earned, but did not, had the
                payment been deposited earlier.

                As you know, the Compensation Act required the Secretary of the Treasury,
                beginning with fiscal year 1993, to deposit into the Economic Recovery Fund each
                year an amount equal to 25-percent of the receipts of the previous fiscal year of the
                Eastern Division of the Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin Project, a project
                administered by the Western Area Power Administration of the Department of
                Energy. Pub. L. 102-575, sec. 3504(a)(2), 106 Stat. 4731, 4732 (1992). The Act
                specified that the aggregate of those annual payments, together with certain other
                amounts appropriated to the Fund, not exceed $149.2 million. Id. Interest that
                accrues on the amounts in the Fund is held in a separate account and is available
                for the Tribe's use for educational, social welfare, economic development, and


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