EDS to push privatization of Indian trust

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Facebook Twitter Email
FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2002

Indian trust duties currently handled by the Department of Interior face being parceled out to third party contractors based on recommendations being made by a consulting firm whose qualifications tribal leaders have questioned.

An agreement signed by department officials last month with EDS Corporation requires the company to "recommend functions that could potentially be provided by contractors," according to an internal document obtained by Indianz.Com. The contract, worth $2.5 million, was approved over the objections of tribes.

At a Congressional hearing last week, Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason defended the deal and chalked up tribal dissent to "miscommunication." He said the contract was scaled back from an anticipated $7.3 million in response to concerns raised.

But National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall told Indianz.Com he isn't satisfied with the explanation. As head of a nationwide task force of tribal leaders working on trust reform, he accused the Interior of moving forward with plans to reorganize management of $3.1 billion in Indian assets without full consultation.

"At the end of the day, they sure committed to EDS," he said in an interview, "and we can't get funding."

The EDS contract will be raised today as the task force meets with department officials for the second in a three-day meeting regarding Indian trust. A select group of tribal leaders wants to work directly with the firm as it takes on yet another aspect of the broken trust system.

The need for inclusion comes in response to the shoddy treatment tribes feel they have received regarding Secretary Gale Norton's often secret dealings. Although she publicly announced last July that EDS would assess information technology aspects of trust reform, she never disclosed an expansion of the firm's duties beyond its known computer expertise.

That $3 million effort resulted in the recommendation -- which Norton followed while keeping the firm's reports private -- to appoint a single person in charge of the tribal and individual Indian trusts. Although her proposal to create a new agency has been held back, tribes fear a new set of EDS suggestions will lead to further dismantling of the trust relationship.

As it stands, the new EDS contract focuses on the department's "business processes," as Cason put it. According to the internal document, which was drafted by EDS for Special Trustee Tom Slonaker, this involves creating an "As Is Trust Business Model" that will describe how various Interior bureaus, agencies and offices carry out trust duties.

As such, various functions could be handed out to private entities. Among others, these include probate, appraisal, land surveys, land title, leasing, realty, accounting, trust social services, forestry and grazing.

A majority of these activities are handled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which would greatly impacted by a move to privatization. The Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Service and the Office of the Special Trustee could also be affected.

BIA spokesperson Nedra Darling, relaying information provided by another department official, said the EDS contract would last about six months. According to the internal document, a final report would be provided in the September-October time frame.

Relevant Links:
EDS Corporation - http://www.eds.com
Indian Trust, Department of Interior - http://www.doi.gov/indiantrust
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com
Trust Reform, NCAI - http://130.94.214.68/main/pages/
issues/other_issues/trust_reform.asp