WASHINGTON, D.C. – Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Donald E. “Del” Laverdure today announced that he has named Thomas D. Thompson as director of the Indian Affairs Office of Budget Management at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Thompson, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, comes to the Interior Department from the Indian Health Service (IHS) in Phoenix, Ariz., where he had been serving as senior advisor to the area director since June 2010.
“The director of budget management for Indian Affairs plays a vital role in our effort to streamline the Indian Affairs organization to deliver efficient and cost-effective services to Indian Country,” Laverdure said. “Thomas Thompson is an experienced federal financial manager who has developed and deployed strategies that have increased efficiency, lowered costs, and raised productivity in federal programs. I am very pleased that he joined my team to help us achieve our financial management goals.”
“I am very grateful for this opportunity to return to the Interior Department to work with Acting Assistant Secretary Laverdure as part of his financial management leadership team,” Thompson said. “I have confidence the improvements made to Indian Affairs’ service delivery processes and systems will increase their overall effectiveness for Indian Affairs employees and the tribes we serve.”
The director of the Office of Budget Management provides leadership to ensure that Indian Affairs’ budget policy and appropriations support program continuity and are consistent with its mission. The director also establishes policies and procedures for the budget execution function that ensure compliance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirements, and directs all budget management functions and formulation activities in collaboration with IA program and planning offices and the IA Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs.
Thompson has over 14 years of federal service, starting in October 1997 as superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Ft. Belknap Agency in Harlem, Mont. In December 2000, he became director of the IHS Phoenix Area Office’s Division of Financial Management.
In 2002, he joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) as Finance Director, where he served as senior advisor to the director on all matters related to resource and financial management. As such, he played a major role in FDA’s efforts to modernize and update its administrative support services and program accountability systems.
In October 2003, Thompson returned to the IHS Phoenix Area Office as the financial management division director, a post he held until September 2005. While serving as senior financial advisor for health programs throughout the Phoenix Area he helped develop and implement a strategic plan to enhance patient services through increased revenues and more effective management practices.
Thompson was promoted in September 2005 to Chief Financial Officer and Director of the Office of Finance and Accounting in IHS’s headquarters in Rockville, Md., where he was responsible for a $4.1 billion health delivery network across Indian Country generating over $540 million in patient revenues. He oversaw the development of a performance-based budget formulation methodology to improve decision making for effective use of scarce resources and that linked budgets to performance to improve efficiency in program planning. In June 2010, he returned to the Phoenix Area as senior advisor to the area director, where he provided upper level program, operational, budgetary and financial analysis on special projects to senior management.
Prior to his federal career, Thompson held from July 1975 to August 1995 several management positions with the Cherokee Nation including financial controller, executive director of tribal operations, president and CEO of gaming operations, and secretary and treasurer. From January 1992 until October 1997, Thomas owned and operated an accounting firm, Thompson & Company, in Stilwell, Okla., which provided management, audit, accounting, and tax planning and preparation services to public and private sector and tribal clients.
Thompson received an associate’s degree in accounting from the Oklahoma State University School of Technical Training in Okmulgee (1973), and holds Certified Public Accountant licenses from the states of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Montana. He is a member of the Oklahoma Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants. He also has served on various boards and committees including the Oklahoma Society of Certified Public Accountants Governmental Accounting Committee, the Tahlequah Chamber of Commerce, the Eastern Oklahoma Development District, the Cherokee Nation Outpost Corporation, the Cherokee Nation Trust Authority, Cherokee Nation Industries, and the Christian Children’s Fund.
