IBIA Sides with Tribe in Realty Transaction with BIA

The Interior Board of Indian Appeals dealt a setback to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in its effort withhold money from a realty contract with the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. On appeal by the BIA, the board upheld the administrative law judge’s decision that the BIA had not proven the duties performed by a Realty Specialist were functions that could not have been contracted to the tribe under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. The BIA had withheld funding to the tribe because, it said, a portion of the available funding needed to be retained by the BIA to hire a realty specialist to perform duties that were federal responsibilities and that could not be contracted to the tribe. The tribe appealed to the Administrative Law Judge who ruled that the BIA's formula for calculating funding to the tribe was arbitrary and unreasonable. The ALJ also said that the BIA had not proven that the duties performed at the agency level could only be performed by federal employees. Therefore, the ALJ determined, the agency’s entire realty service budget was available for Self-D contracting.