WASHINGTON, July 3 -- A computerized "virtual ledger" created by the government to help track missing Indian Trust records was described Thursday as so "riddled with errors" that it cannot be used to support a court-mandated accounting of the records.
Dwight J. Duncan of Phoenix said that the ledger, designed by Ernst & Young employees for the Department of Interior, was a failure. The absence of standards in the program made their report on trust problems "worthless," he said.
Testifying as the final witness during a trial on how to reform Interior's long-troubled Indian Trust program, the statistical expert cited five examples of erroneous transitions in the E&R; report that illustrated how hundreds of thousands of dollars were not credited to the accounts of the handful of trust beneficiaries the study used.
"It wouldn't work," said Duncan of the E&Y; "virtual ledger" as testimony ended in a 42-day long trial.
Try as he and a number of computer experts did for several days, they were unable to make the "virtual ledger" work, Duncan told U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. "No one was able to get the virtual ledger to work," Duncan said.
Duncan said he was finally able to tap into the document files the government used in building its reform plan. Once there, the statistical expert said he couldn't understand how the government could claim there were no errors to be found among trust documents that were the foundation of the government's reform plan.
Duncan said he found missing documents and improperly cited documents. For instance, the government claimed one oil well used in its study had paid $240 in royalty payments to one Indian.
That was a dry well that couldn't have paid any royalties, Duncan said.
He said he found the government was charging administrative fees to some trust account holders, a statement that contradicted testimony in the case that the government did not charge such fees to the Indians. He said he found one instance were the government said in had verified a $5.75 payment in one account, the linked document only cited a $47.25 deposit.
Duncan said he couldn't explain the difference. The problems he encountered caused him to doubt that the government's plan for verifying the accuracy of trust records would work.
"I can't imagine how" the government could claim its plan would produce zero errors, Duncan said.
The Arizona financial consultant was the final rebuttal witness presented by Indians who are seeking a full accounting of funds that the government deposited for them in trust accounts. The accounts were created by Congress in 1887 to hold the proceeds of government-arranged leases of oil, gas and mineral leases on Indian lands in the West.
The case will resume Monday with a discussion of exhibits. On Tuesday lawyers for the Indians and the government will make their final oral arguments to Lamberth.
contact: Bill McAllister 703 385-6996
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