Employees Believed BIE Director’s Presence During Fiscal Monitoring Review at Former School Was Improper

The OIG investigated allegations that Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Tony Dearman improperly influenced the findings of a fiscal monitoring review at a BIE-funded boarding school that took place in February 2018 because of his personal associations with the school. We found that Dearman’s presence at the school during the fiscal monitoring review was unusual, but that the monitoring team did not change its findings because of Dearman. We found that Dearman, who works at the BIE headquarters in Washington, DC, had previously served as the school’s principal and his family had associations with the school and still lived near the school. Dearman traveled in February 2018 to visit his family and attended the monitoring team’s exit interview with school officials. Of the 13 BIE employees involved with the review, 9 believed that Dearman’s presence negatively impacted the review, stating that his presence was either improper, inappropriate, a conflict of interest, or an appearance of a conflict of interest. Four team members said Dearman’s presence did not affect them or the team and did not recall him questioning or disagreeing with the team’s findings. All 13 team members told us the team did not changes its findings because of Dearman. Dearman said he attended the exit interview because he wanted to observe the progress of financial monitoring practices he had implemented at the BIE. He denied arguing with the team or questioning its findings and said he spoke up at the exit interview only to ensure the team gave the school accurate information. While we found that no other BIE director had attended these types of review at this or any other BIE school, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs John Tahsuda said he saw no issue with Dearman’s participation. We provided a copy of our report to the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs.