Tempe, Ariz. ? Cited as the first of its kind in the nation, Arizona State University will begin a tribal financial manager certification program in late spring 2009.
The Native American Financial Officers Association initiated the two-semester program, noting the need to provide education and training in tribal governments’ accounting principles and their legal operating environment, a background that many people don’t have.
“It’s just not taught anywhere,” said Corinne Wilson, Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone, NAFOA’s tribal financial manager certification program coordinator.
When Wilson, a certified public accountant with Moss Adams LLP in Phoenix, graduated from college with a degree in accounting, she said she didn’t have exposure to tribal accounting processes and the legal operating environment.
“It’s important to learn about tribal financial management through the program in addition to learning it on the job,” she said. “There’s just such a need out there.”
The program’s partners include NAFAO, Arizona State University’s American Indian Policy Institute and the University of Arizona’s Native Nations Institute.
When the program begins, the first class will be taught in a physical classroom at Arizona State University. The lectures will be videotaped and later edited for an online, distance learning program, anticipated to be up and running by the end of 2009, said Dr. Patricia Mariella, Arizona State University’s American Indian Policy Institute director.
The online certificate program will be available through downloads, but these will require substantial bandwidth to run, so Mariella said they are also developing a disk version that can be sent to students.
“We anticipate that participants will be able to register at various times throughout the year, but that there will be a time limit on finishing the curriculum once a student begins the online program,” she said.
She said the program is intended for a wide range of participants who have practical experience as well as people who have academic training.
“In addition, it could be valuable for elected officials who may want to learn more about tribal financial management,” Mariella said.
People who have a bachelor’s degree will automatically be eligible to enroll in the program, but those who don’t have a bachelor’s degree will need to provide some additional information to take the courses, including their work experience in the financial management area.
Elected officials who deal with budgets will also be eligible to enroll.
Wilson and other American Indian professionals and attorneys will be among those teaching program courses. She said the program will have six courses including basic tribal accounting principles, financial transactions and systems, federal financial compliance, tribal financial management (which includes revenue and budget forecasting as well as financing and investments), fiduciary funds and tribal governance and the basics of Indian law for financial management.
The basic Indian law for financial management course will also address Internal Revenue Service issues, taxes and self-determination laws, and the program can be completed in two semesters.
“That’s what we’re planning right now,” Wilson said.
The fee will be based on the cost to administer the certificate program, Mariella said they anticipate the fee will be similar to the cost of a three-credit course.
“This is a huge area of need, and I think it’s terrific that professional organizations like NAFOA, the University of Arizona’s Native Nations Institute and the American Indian Policy Institute are working together to provide this very needed service to Indian country,” Mariella said.
She said the partners’ goal for the program is for it to evolve into more than one level of certification with increasing complexity and eventually to become an academic course.
Anyone interested in the program can contact the Arizona State University American Indian Policy Institute at aipi@asu.edu or call (480) 965-1055.