The Interior Department says it will take much longer than anticipated to come up with a computer system to properly manage a $500 million trust system for American Indians, meaning more financial uncertainty for many of the 300,000 account holders, the Associated Press reported.
In the court-ordered report, the agency said a $60 million computer system to track account information has run into such severe development problems there is no longer a timetable to have it up and running nationwide. Original plans had called for the system to be available by the end of this year and agency officials consistently have said the project was on schedule.
"We're once again left with the feeling of empty promises," said Keith Harper, a Cherokee lawyer representing account holders.
Last year, Interior Secretary Babbitt pledged to clean up $3 billion in Indian trust funds after he and Treasury Secretary Rubin received contempt citations from a federal judge. They were cited for their delay in producing documents sought by Indian account holders who sued the government over its acknowledged mismanagement of the funds.
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