A government watchdog said that federally run schools for Native American children have misspent millions of dollars — and in one case illegally transferred $1.7 million to an offshore account.

The report by the Government Accountability Office highlights lax government oversight of spending and other financial management problems at the schools.

It calls federal monitoring of spending at the schools "weak."

The Interior Department runs the Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees more than 180 schools for about 41,000 students primarily on reservations in some of the more remote and poverty-stricken places in America.

Agency officials say they concur with most of the GAO's recommendations, which include better monitoring of spending.

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