Copyright 1999 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday (New York, NY)
April 8, 1999, Thursday, NASSAU AND SUFFOLK
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Page A38
LENGTH: 407 words
HEADLINE:
LEGAL SERVICES ERRORS INFLATE CASES / GOVT.-FUNDED AGENCY'S COUNT DRAWS GOP IRE
BYLINE: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: Washington
BODY:
Washington - The federally funded agency that provides free legal aid for
poor Americans overstated the number of cases it handled in 1997 by tens of
thousands, drawing the ire of lawmakers who rely on the figures to decide how
much money to give the program.
Legal Services Corp., a
target of Republican budget cuts, says it has cleared up local bookkeeping
errors and as a result expects to report 200,000 fewer cases to Congress for
1998 - a 10 percent drop from the previous year's inflated figure.
House
Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), a longtime critic, called the overcounting
"the grossest example of Washington bureaucrats abusing hard-earned taxpayer
money." Legal Services President John McKay acknowledges that the 1997 count was
"slightly off" but says it wasn't intentionally misleading. "It's not
significant in terms of overall cases and services we are providing," said
McKay, a Republican elected by the bipartisan board two years ago. "If anything,
we're underreporting the services we provide."
Legal Services reported
serving 1.93 million clients in 1997, but a review of just five of the agency's
269 regional programs found officials had overstated their caseload by at least
90,000. As a result of improved counting methods, the agency expects to report
1.73 million cases for 1998.
Reports by Legal Services inspector
general, the agency's internal watchdog, and other documents obtained by The
Associated Press provide a more detailed picture.
Documents showed
problems in at least five regional programs. They included telephone calls from
people who did not get legal help or were ineligible for assistance that were
reported as new cases, cases that were double-counted and counting of outdated
cases.
For example, the Legal Aid Society of San Diego misreported more
than 14,000 telephone calls as cases, an audit found. San Diego executive
director Gregory Knoll said, however, that "every caller has their problem
assessed" even if they don't receive legal advice.
Legal Services, a
nonprofit corporation, gives federal grants to local agencies that provide legal
assistance to low-income Americans in civil cases such as tenant problems or
court protection from domestic violence. Congressional Republicans slashed the
program's money by 30 percent in 1996. Legal Services gave $ 283 million to
local programs last year, and its funding was increased to $ 300 million in
1999.
LOAD-DATE: April 9, 1999
