Commissioner of Indian Affairs William E. Hallett said today that Indian self-determination will be boosted by a recent decision by the President's Management Improvement Council, agreeing to sponsor the Tribal Manager Corps (TMC), a new initiative to strengthen and improve Indian tribal governments. The TMC project is designed to make professional managers/administrators from government agencies and private industry available to work with Indian tribe’s to help meet tribal management needs and, thereby, further Indian self-determination capabilities.
Hallett said that the endorsement of the TMC project by the President's council enhances recruitment of needed personnel within government agencies, further the commitment of the agencies to work together for the common goal and gives greater status within the Administration to tribal governments. ! Hallett said that the Tribal Manager Corps will be an inter-agency, inter-organization, effort to recruit a cadre of individuals with management expertise in various fields. Participating tribes would then select from this cadre a manager who would work with the tribe for a year or longer to institute agreed-upon management improvements.
"We hope to help 20 tribes in the first year," Hallett said. "We plan to develop a general profile of tribal management needs, identify specific assistance wanted by individual tribes and then recruit the kind ·of people who can respond to these needs." Hallett indicated that the assignment of the managers to the tribes could be handled under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act or through contracts under the Indian Self-Determination Act It is expected that state and local governments, as well as the Federal agencies, and non-governmental organizations will be involved in the project. An Interagency Task Force to direct the TMC is being formed, Hallett said. "It will include top-level representation from the government agencies, private industry and tribal organizations. We expect to announce further details on this in the near, future," he said
