"Before leaping headfirst into a major business decision, proper research and investigation must be performed to determine if any project is worth the investment of time and money.

It's something called "due diligence" in the business world. Those two words seemingly have little meaning to certain Navajo Nation officials.

A Navajo Nation Office of the Auditor General report found tribal agencies, including the Division of Economic Development and the Office of the President and Vice President, failed to properly investigate BCDS Manufacturing Inc. before it approved $2.5 million in loans and investments.

During the most basic due diligence phase, a simple Internet search would have revealed former BCDS CEO Hak Ghun was one of seven people convicted of fraud in a 1984 commodity futures case involving $11 million. The resume submitted to a key tribal committee mysteriously excluded Ghun's employment history from 1983 to 1986. That alone should have raised another major red flag.

Instead, everyone involved blindly approved Navajo funds for the start-up steel and fiber fabrication company located in Shiprock. More than five years later, the picture is about as ugly as it gets."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Navajo officials must learn due diligence (The Farmington Daily Times 5/25)

Another Story:
BCDS: What went wrong? (The Gallup Independent 5/24)

Related Stories:
Navajo Nation audit faults dealings with company (5/21)
Navajo Nation to reopen manufacturing plant (10/30)
Navajo Nation ousts convicted felon from business (10/16)
Editorial: Navajo Nation makes a mess of loan (9/25)
Navajo Nation pays off company's loan (9/19)
Editorial: More poor planning on Navajo Nation loan (6/20)
Navajo Nation didn't check background before loan (6/7)
Navajo Nation investigates alleged loan misuse (6/6)