We audited interim costs incurred between October 2013 and March 2016 by the Chippewa Cree Tribe (CCT) on Agreement No. A13AP00009, a transportation-related agreement, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to determine if costs claimed by CCT were allowable, allocable, and reasonable; if BIA adequately oversaw the agreement; and if BIA conducted its oversight in accordance with applicable Federal laws and regulations and BIA guidelines.
We found $1,503,191 in questioned costs, which included unsupported payments to subcontractors and vendors, unsupported internal transactions in CCT’s accounting system, unallowable out-of-period costs, and unallowable payments to vendors. In addition, we found that BIA did not adequately oversee the contracts in accordance with Federal laws and regulations and BIA guidelines, resulting in CCT claiming costs that were unsupported and unallowable.
We made five recommendations to help BIA resolve the questioned costs and improve its oversight activities of CCT. We sent notices of our findings and recommendations to CCT, but the Tribe did not respond to them. Consequently, the recommendations remain unresolved.