"I'm pleased this effort will not include a (formal) report."

- John McKay, LSC President, in a message to the LSC Inspector General on November 25, 1997 stating that he was pleased the IG decided not to publicly release a November 1997 report that contained, among other things, a conclusion that the Corporation's case statistics were unreliable and should not be used as a bulwark, as they had been, to support continuance of federally funding legal services.
 
 

"You are correct that the numbers provided to Congress were inaccurate, … in February 2000 … we will make our public statements … and also allow management to fix the problems we observed…"

 - Eduoard Quatrevaux, LSC Inspector General, acknowledging, in writing, to members of his staff on September 23, 1998, that the Corporation grossly overstated program accomplishments by claiming in a report to Congress that the 1997 program served 1.9 million clients. By keeping this materially significant information from Congress, the IG allowed Congress to unknowingly use bloated case numbers as it made the decision to approve a $17 million appropriation increase for LSC's FY 1999 program.
 

 

"…That is strictly an accounting of the number of cases reported by our recipients. They report them to us and we report them back to Congress … What we are trying to capture is the service that we provide to eligible clients so that you and others in the Congress can determine what they are getting for the investment … we are tightening up our reporting requirements. We do not anticipate a real significant change in the number of cases we handle …"

- John McKay, LSC President, responding to a question from Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) during the March 3, 1999, congressional budget hearing on how LSC got the number 1.9 million cases it reported to Congress.

"…My understanding that as a result of the tightened reporting requirements imposed by the CSR handbook … we will be looking at approximately five percent reduction in caseload reports, overall magnitude."

- Douglas Eakeley, LSC Board Chairman, responding to a question from Rep. Latham during the March 3, 1999, congressional budget hearing on the magnitude of the case over-counting problem for the 1997 program.

"That is not accurate."

- John McKay, LSC President, responding to a question from Rep. Latham during the March 3, 1999, congressional budget hearing on whether 2/3 of about 149,000 open and closed cases reported by the San Francisco, Florida Rural, Northern Virginia, Houston, San Diego, an Miami legal services programs were invalid.

"We haven't completed the audit reports. No, I'm not suppose to under government auditing standards."

- Eduoard Quatrevaux, LSC Inspector General, responding to a question from Rep. Latham during the March 3, 1999 congressional budget hearing on whether he reported the case over-counting problem to Congress.

"The problem is not program-wide. It is limited to one discreet type of problem - referred after legal assessment."

- Eduoard Quatrevaux, LSC Inspector General, responding, March 1999, to a question from the staff of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, about LSC's case over-counting problem.
 
 

• "… his charge that we "cooked the books" was untrue … Congressman Latham's criticism of the IG was also clearly unwarranted. At least three times, Congressman Latham was advised that the GAO auditing standards do not allow the release of preliminary data…we have been forced to respond to attacks…reinforced by grossly inaccurate information."

- John Erlenborn, LSC Board Vice Chairman, in a May 14, 1999 letter he sent to House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.) and the entire House of Representatives which was highly critical of Congressmen Armey and Latham. Evidence subsequently acquired by Congress revealed that LSC's annual program produced only about 900,000 cases as opposed to the 1.9 million cases claimed by LSC in the 1999 budget hearing.  The evidence also shows that GAO auditing standards allow the release of preliminary audit data to legislators (Appendix 3).

Index of the LSC Case Over-Counting Scandal

Legal Services Accountability Project Page

Home Page