Agency Audit Verifies Whistleblower Mismanagement Charges Interior Continues to Mangle Indian Trust Accounts, Losing Millions Monthly By: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
An internal report by U.S. Interior Department auditors confirms disclosures by an agency attorney concerning ongoing gross mismanagement of Indian land leases, according to a copy of the audit released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The attorney whose charges triggered the audit is facing a proposed dismissal for revealing "trade secrets."
Robert McCarthy, a Field Solicitor for Interior, has repeatedly warned his superiors, Congress and others about systemic mishandling of an estimated 11,000 land leases on behalf of hundreds of tribal members and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) office in Palm Springs. An "Indian Trust Investigative Review" by Interior's Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians dated July 20, 2007 vindicates McCarthy by validating his claims that the BIA failed to collect millions of dollars in lease revenues owed to Indian landowners.Read the full story
