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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 of Texas, a longtime critic, called the over counting "the grossest example of Washington ;bureaucrats abusing hard-earned taxpayer money." Legal Services President John McKay acknowledged that the 1997 count was "slightly off," and he said it will be adjusted. But he said the agency 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 under reporting the services we provide." The agency didn't have enough information to alert Congress that there was a problem until just two months ago, officials said. Legal Services reported serving 1.93 million clients in 1997. But a review of just five of the agency's 269 regional programs found that 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 provide a more detailed picture of the over counting. 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 out dated cases. Documents, obtained by American Injustice, show that Legal Services Corporation discriminates against men and fathers. One case details instructions to the father that help will be forthcoming, only if the father does not fight for custody of his children. A group in Lakeland, Fla., serving rural areas reported 44,993 new cases - eight times the 5,500 valid cases it actually worked, officials said. Peter Helwig, executive director, blamed a computer error for most of the problems. Computer problems in the Courthouse |
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