OIG investigated allegations that Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) personnel failed to process more than 100 checks and money orders received from the public in 2007, 2008, and 2009, resulting in the loss of approximately $14,000. During our investigation we also learned that a senior agency manager knew about the mismanagement but did not to take action.
We confirmed the initial allegation and learned that BIA had already taken action against two agency employees who failed to deposit the payments. BIA discovered a collections officer did not deposit the checks and allowed her to resign from Federal service in lieu of termination. BIA then learned the collections officer appointed to replace the one who resigned also failed to deposit the payments, and BIA subsequently revoked her collections officer designation.
We also confirmed the senior agency manager, who was related to the first collections officer, did not take action when she learned of the failure to process checks. The senior manager admitted she failed to act to properly process the payments once she learned about them.