by Jennifer Talhelm
Staff Writer
The Associated Press
Officials in the federal agency that oversees American Indian trust assets had an improper social relationship with an accounting firm and pressured subordinates to give the firm preferential treatment, a government investigation found.
Senior managers in the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians based in Albuquerque, N.M., golfed, drank and partied with the executives of the New Mexico accounting firm Chavarria, Dunne & Lamey, which won $6.6 million in contract work over eight years, according to the report by the Interior Department’s inspector general.
The investigation, first reported this week by U.S. News & World Report, found that employees in the trustee’s office “felt pressured by these senior OST officials to continue to award work” to the firm and that they feared retaliation for speaking out.
The officials’ relationship with the firm “created an appearance of preferential treatment,” violating ethics standards and an internal memo directing employees to avoid close contact with contractors, Inspector General Earl Devaney wrote to department officials in the letter accompanying the report dated May 16.
The office was created in 1994 to improve accountability and management of Indian funds held in trust by the government.
Special Trustee Ross Swimmer said in a statement that he had directed his managers to take new ethics training as a result of the report’s findings.
“Any appearance of an ethics violation at any level within OST is a great concern, and I believe that the additional ethics training will allow everyone to be fully informed of the rules,” Swimmer said.
Accounting firm executives said in a statement that they believe their contracts were awarded under the appropriate guidelines. They pointed out that the report does not allege that they did anything wrong.
“We believe that OST management has acted appropriately and that the (Inspector General’s) concern of ‘an appearance of preferential treatment’ for CD&L; is subjective and unsubstantiated,” the statement said.
Devaney’s report outlines how the firm’s executives and trustee managers exchanged gifts of meals and drinks, took out-of-town trips to a major golf event and played golf together almost weekly.
An eight-page chart details the dates of golf trips and meals, which often fell just days before contracts were awarded.
The office awarded, extended and expanded the contract without competition, the report found.
Donna Erwin, principal deputy special trustee, said the socializing referred to in the report “involved only refreshments and meals which may have given the appearance of preferential treatment.” But she believes that no preferential treatment was given.
Devaney said the findings are of particular concern to the Interior Department because they go “close to the heart” of a 10-year-old class-action lawsuit by thousands of Indians accusing the government of mismanaging billions of dollars in royalties from their lands since 1887.
“The seriousness of this conduct on the part of the OST senior management is exacerbated by the nature of the contract, the sensitivity of the work involved, the level of the OST officials’ positions and the mission of OST,” Devaney wrote.
|
