And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 12:44:12 -0600 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: INTERIOR OFFICIALS ACCUSED OF DESTROYING INDIAN RECORDS Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a36fa673b5340.htm INTERIOR OFFICIALS ACCUSED OF DESTROYING INDIAN RECORDS Washington Times, via DebraDoe, with her permission to post March 25, 1999 Jerry Seper Interior Department officials who told a federal judge they could not find records describing the department's oversight of American Indian trust funds have been accused in sworn affidavits of destroying the documents to conceal them from the court. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who held Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in contempt last month for not turning over the records in a lawsuit, ordered hearings on the accusations yesterday after being told Tuesday the documents had been deliberately destroyed. The suspected destruction was outlined in the affidavits given to the judge during a status hearing in a lawsuit brought by the Native American Rights Fund. The affidavits, brought by some of the many plaintiffs, were later ordered sealed pending yesterday's hearing, although that hearing -- held in the judge's chambers -- was scheduled to resume today. The suit by the Rights Fund, which represents several Indian tribes involved in the trust fund, accuses the Interior and Treasury departments of mismanaging trust fund monies. In November, Judge Lamberth ordered the departments to produce canceled checks and other documents showing the status of the trust fund, which involves more than 300,000 individual accounts and 2,000 tribal accounts. The departments oversee the receipt of money from land settlements, royalties and payments by companies that use Indian land. The judge sought the records to allow attorneys for the Rights Fund to prepare for trial. The departments have never complied, giving the judge several reasons for the delay -- including an Interior claim that some of the records were so tainted by rodent droppings in a New Mexico warehouse that to disturb them would put department officials at a health risk. Interior officials have been unable to verify how much cash has been collected. An audit by the Arthur Andersen accounting firm said the Bureau of Indian Affairs cannot account for $2.4 billion in trust funds. During a hearing March 3 before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Mr. Babbitt promised to correct the situation. "You'll be the judge. I will do my best," Mr. Babbitt said when asked what he intended to do about mismanagement by the BIA. Special trustee Paul Homan, assigned to oversee the fund, resigned in January. He said Mr. Babbitt stripped him of the authority he needed to do the job and that he was blocked by Interior officials who sought to undermine congressionally ordered reforms with continual rejections of his requests for money and manpower. Mr. Homan said the department could "no longer be trusted to keep and produce trust records." He urged the accounts be assigned to an independent agency. Mr. Babbitt ordered a reorganization and requested more funding for next year. He also said a new accounting system was expected to be in place by the end of the year. But acting special trustee Thomas Thompson said in a confidential memo last year that he was "grateful" he did not run the program. He outlined many concerns he had about an inability to implement the Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994. The act directs the department to oversee the fund and provide the necessary budget to do the job. Mr. Thompson's memo was written before his appointment as Mr. Homan's successor. He has since told the Indian Affairs Committee that trust funds were being properly administered and that the program was sufficiently funded. In a letter to Mr. Babbitt last week, Republican Sens. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado and Sen. Frank H. Murkowski of Alaska, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said they were concerned that Mr. Thompson appeared willing to endorse a process he had criticized. "Before our committees, you vigorously testified about your commitment to clean up the trust fund fiasco," they wrote to Mr. Babbitt. "We are not encouraged, however, when only hours after the hearing, your hand-picked acting trustee seems to reverse himself on an issue critical to the success of this effort." They said if the many problems Mr. Thompson's memo described had been corrected, Mr. Babbitt should list the improvements to the committees. Links to EARLIER THREAD are posted with these links. A FEDERAL JUDGE IS THREATENING TO HOLD SECRETARY BURCE BABBITT AND TREASURY SECRETARY ROBERT RUBIN IN CONTEMPT INDIANS' SPECIAL TRUSTEE QUITS, CRITICIZING BABBITT JUDGE TO INVESTIGATE BABBITT SENATE COMMITTEE TO LOOK INTO BABBIT'S HANDLING OF TRUST OFFICE BABBITT, RUBIN LIKELY WILL BE HELD IN CONTEMPT OF COURT BREAKING: RUBIN AND BABBITT CITED FOR CONTEMPT! THOMPSON COMMITTEE -- LOOK AT NUMBERS 22 & 35 Same thing going on over in Commerce Dept.: COMMERCE DESTROYED EVIDENCE, JUDGE CHARGES\DATA MIGHT HAVE SHED LIGHT ON TRADE MISSIONS, FUND RAISING, HE SAYS AFTER JUDGE'S REBUKE, COMMERCE SECRETARY EXPANDS INVESTIGATION INTO COVERUP <<<< To remove your name from this list send a message to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" with the message "unsubscribe triballaw" >>>> &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
