by Jodi Rave Lee
Lincoln Journal Star
Interior Secretary Gale Norton recently derided one of her senior managers for his inattention to a job that was supposed to play a key role in the government’s attempt to improve its trust fund responsibilities for Native people.
In an internal memo obtained by the Lincoln Journal Star, Norton told Special Trustee Thomas Slonaker she was concerned with his job performance.
Norton also told Slonaker in the April 17 memo he should not expect any additional trust reform duties.
“Frankly, your performance to date does not justify expansion of your responsibilities,” Norton said. “Instead, you should be focusing your efforts on strengthening your execution of tasks already assigned to you.”
And on those tasks, she criticized him for his lack of diligence.
“I am concerned with several items including: projects that have been transferred to other organizations without material progress; … our most recent financial audit findings that suggest room for improvement (inadequate policies and procedures, unreconciled cash, trust fund and special deposit account balances).”
She also cited funding for trust initiatives that his office didn’t provide in a timely manner and concerns over his office’s management of records.
The Interior Department did not comment Wednesday, nor did Slonaker’s office.
Slonaker was appointed special trustee during the last months of the Clinton administration.
The American Indian Trust Fund Reform Act of 1994 created the position, requiring the special trustee to report to the interior secretary. Norton, however, told Slonaker in her memo that he was to accept her deputy secretary, Steven Griles, as a direct line of authority.
“Let me clarify so that there is no question,” she said. “The deputy secretary has broad authority to operate for me … in addition to his coordinating role on trust reform. Accordingly, you report to him in the same way you report to me.”
Meanwhile, Norton is awaiting a decision in her contempt trial, which ended in February in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.
She and Neal McCaleb, assistant secretary for Indian affairs, were both charged with failing to fulfill trust responsibilities to thousands of Native account-holders who contend the government lost more than $10 billion of their natural resources income.
Reach Jodi Rave at 473-7240 or jrave@journalstar.com.
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