FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 10, 2002
www.indiantrust.com


INTERIOR OFFICIAL IN CHARGE OF FAILED TAAMS SYSTEM
MINIMIZES JOB AS "PRIMARILY OVERSIGHT"

Chief Technology Officer: "My role was not to micromanage"

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Interior Department's chief information technology 
officer testified today that he played only an advisory, oversight role 
in the development of a $36 million trust data computer system that does 
not work and that an Interior consultant has recently recommended should 
be scrapped.

Daryl White, the Chief Information Officer at Interior since March 1998, 
acknowledged that he had attended key meetings and authored, received and 
annotated critical memos as the Trust Asset and Accounting Management 
System (TAAMS) was being developed, but denied he bore responsibility for 
the project's disastrous course.

The onus for the failure of TAAMS, White suggested, fell largely on the 
BIA project manager, Dominic Nessi. "Nessi never said he couldn't meet 
the requirements," White said. Asked about a Feb. 23, 2001 memo in which 
Nessi charged that Interior's efforts at trust reform were "imploding" 
and were based on "rosy projections," White dismissed the complaints. 
"This memo reflects a project manager's frustrations after being with a 
project for a very long time," said White. "A note like this does not 
surprise me."

White was testifying on the 15th day of a contempt trial for Interior 
Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal 
McCaleb. It was Nessi's memo that prompted U.S. District Judge Royce C. 
Lamberth to appoint a Court Monitor whose investigative reports led to 
the contempt charges against Norton and McCaleb. 

White characterized his office at several points today as detached from 
the day-to-day TAAMS field project and having strictly an advisory and 
policy function. Although he was responsible for oversight of the TAAMS 
project, he said, "We [Interior] have hundreds of systems. My job is 
policy and discipline." White also testified that he had not read 
Lamberth's Dec. 21, 1999 decision ordering Interior to reform the 
Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust.

White's testimony marked the completion of the case by the Cobell 
plaintiffs, who seek to have Norton and McCaleb held in contempt. 
The government's first witness was John Snyder, a division chief in 
White's office who was instrumental in the planning and development of 
the TAAMS system. Snyder's testimony will continue Friday.
 
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