II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1587

To amend the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of

1994 to establish within the Department of the Interior an Office of

Special Trustee for Data Cleanup and Internal Control.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

SEPTEMBER 15, 1999

Mr. CAMPBELL introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs

A BILL

To amend the American Indian Trust Fund Management

Reform Act of 1994 to establish within the Department

of the Interior an Office of Special Trustee for Data

Cleanup and Internal Control.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 Congress makes the following findings:

5 (1) Numerous studies by the Office of the In6 spector General of the Department of the Interior,

7 the General Accounting Office, and independent

8 auditors have criticized the absence of independent
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1 oversight or other forms of internal control over the

2 Department’s management of Indian trust assets

3 and trust funds.

4 (2) Indian and tribal account holders have indi5 cated that they will have little or no confidence in

6 the reform of the trust management system if the

7 reform is carried out by the same entities that are

8 responsible for the management of the system on the

9 date of enactment of this Act.

10 (3) It would constitute an inherent conflict of

11 interest or at least the appearance of a conflict of

12 interest if the entity establishing internal controls

13 for a trust management system were to be ap14 pointed, supervised, and subject to removal by the

15 entity that such internal controls are written for.

16 (4) Account holder confidence will be improved

17 if the same official is not simultaneously responsible

18 for the immediate supervision of the fiduciary and fi19 nancial reporting activities of both the trust fund ac20 counting system and the trust asset and accounting

21 management system.

22 (5) To the extent practicable, the reform of ac23 tivities and creation of internal controls as described

24 in the Department of the Interior’s Trust Manage25 ment Improvement Project, High Level Implementa-
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1 tion Plan dated July 1998, and any amendments or

2 modifications to that plan, should be carried out by

3 private contractors.

4 SEC. 2. SPECIAL TRUSTEE FOR DATA CLEANUP AND INTER5 NAL CONTROL.

6 The American Indian Trust Fund Management Re7 form Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 4001 et seq.) is amended—

8 (1) by redesignating title IV as title V;

9 (2) by redesignating section 401 as section 501;

10 and

11 (3) by inserting after title III, the following:

12 ‘‘TITLE IV—MISCELLANEOUS

13 PROVISIONS

14 ‘‘SEC. 401. SPECIAL TRUSTEE FOR DATA CLEANUP AND IN15 TERNAL CONTROL.

16 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is hereby established

17 within the Department of Interior the Office of Special

18 Trustee for Data Cleanup and Internal Control. The Of19 fice shall be headed by the Special Trustee for Data Clean20 up and Internal Control (referred to in this section as the

21 ‘Special Trustee’) who shall report directly to the Sec22 retary.

23 ‘‘(b) SPECIAL TRUSTEE.—

24 ‘‘(1) APPOINTMENT.—The Special Trustee shall

25 be appointed by the Inspector General of the De-
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1 partment of the Interior from among individuals

2 who possess demonstrated ability in the—

3 ‘‘(A) development and implementation of

4 internal controls;

5 ‘‘(B) development and implementation of

6 trust management procedures; and

7 ‘‘(C) conversion or rehabilitation of trust

8 management systems.

9 ‘‘(2) COMPENSATION.—The Special Trustee

10 shall be paid at a rate determined by the Secretary

11 to be appropriate for the position, but not less than

12 the basic pay payable at Level III of the Executive

13 Schedule under Section 5313 of Title 5.

14 ‘‘(3) TERM OF OFFICE.—The Special Trustee

15 shall serve for a term of 2 years and may only be

16 removed for good cause by the Secretary.

17 ‘‘(c) DUTIES.—

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding title III,

19 the Special Trustee shall oversee the following sub20 projects as identified in the Draft Trust Manage21 ment Improvement Project Subproject Task Up22 dates, dated April 1999:

23 ‘‘(A) Subproject #1, OST Data Cleanup.

24 ‘‘(B) Subproject #5, Trust Funds Ac25 counting System.
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1 ‘‘(C) Subproject #9, Policies and Proce2 dures.

3 ‘‘(D) Subproject #10, Training.

4 ‘‘(E) Subproject #11, Internal Controls.

5 ‘‘(2) OVERSIGHT.—The Special Trustee shall

6 oversee the expenditure of funds appropriated by

7 Congress for each of the subprojects described in

8 paragraph (1), including the approval or modifica9 tion of contracts, and make employment decisions

10 for each of the positions funded for each of such

11 projects.

12 ‘‘(3) CONTRACTING.—To the maximum extent

13 practicable, the Special Trustee shall ensure that ac14 tivities are carried out under this subsection through

15 contracts entered into with private entities or

16 through the retention of the temporary services of

17 trust management specialists.

18 ‘‘(d) MODIFICATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.—

19 To the extent that the activities to be carried out under

20 subsection (c) are altered or amended as a result of any

21 modification made after the date of enactment of this Act

22 to the Department of the Interior’s Trust Management

23 Improvement Project, High Level Implementation Plan
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1 (dated July 1998), the Special Trustee shall continue to

2 be responsible for overseeing such activities.’’.

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