This winter, 112 years of sloppy accounting by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs fell into Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt’s lap (HCN, 3/15/99). Now, his department has bounced back
with a million-dollar solution. On June 25, the department will
unveil the Trust Asset Accounting Management System (TAAMS). The
software program is designed to sort out the many owners of land on
Indian reservations and give them money the Bureau has collected
over the years from farmers, ranchers and others who lease Indian
land. After the year 2000, the system will go to 12 area offices,
serving 123 tribes. But, according to a 27-page General Accounting
Office report, requested by Colorado Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse
Campbell, the computer program is a waste of money. The report,
Indian Trust Funds: Interior Lacks Assurance That Trust Improvement
Plan Will Be Effective, says that Interior did not explain what it
wanted from the program, consider other options, or estimate future
economic problems the program may cause. Interior spokesman Rex
Hackler counters that the GAO finished its study in November 1998,
before Interior finished the program. Computer professionals will
train and supervise local Bureau officials in the use of the
program. Says Hackler, “I am confident it will work.”
For a free copy of the report including
Interior’s response, write the
United States
General Accounting Office, P.O. Box 37050, Washington, D.C. 20013,
call 202/512-3000, or find the report on the GAO Web site at
www.gao.gov/new.items/ai99053.pdf
* Keri
Watson
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Can computers solve Indian problems?.
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