NATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY CENTER
"Promoting Ethics in Government"
103 West Broad Street, Suite 620
Falls Church, Virginia 22046
703-237-1970, Fax 703-237-2090
www.nlpc.org, nlpc@nlpc.org
Legal Services Accountability
Project
SPECIAL REPORT TO CONGRESS
July 2000
The LSC Case Over-Counting Scandal of 1999
SUMMARY
The purpose of this document is to provide an accurate and historical
record of the Legal Services Corporation's (LSC) case over-counting scandal
of 1999. It chronicles the scandal and the incredulous conduct of the Corporation's
leadership (Board Chairman and/or Vice Chairman and/or Corporation President)
and the Corporation's Inspector General from November 1997 through September
1999. In official reports and testimonies to Congress, these Corporation
officials purposely:
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withheld important information about the over-counting during congressional
budget deliberations which enhanced prospects for getting increased program
funding for FY 1999 and FY 2000,
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misrepresented the scope, magnitude, and type of case over-counting problems
after being caught trying to cover-up the problem, and
-
provided inaccurate and incomplete descriptions of the laws and standards
governing their responsibility to report serious problems to congressional
appropriators and overseers.
The persistent efforts of the Congress, the media, public interest groups,
and concerned citizens thwarted the dubious efforts of the Corporation
officials. In April 2000, LSC had to admit the annual legal services program
only produced 924,000 cases. This figure is substantially less than the
1.9 million cases LSC used to support requests for increased FY 1999 and
FY 2000 funding. The American public also learned the program accomplished
far less with taxpayer dollars, in terms of legitimate cases produced,
than claimed by the Corporation anytime during the preceding 20 years.
Counting cases that never existed, counting single cases more than once,
and counting other non-reportable issues such as classifying telephone
calls as cases without providing any legal assistance or determining whether
callers were eligible to receive assistance were among the chief reasons
for the over-counting. Documentation acquired by past and present Corporation
and OIG auditors, evaluators, and analysts prove the case reporting and
over-counting problems were significant, widespread, deep-rooted, and longstanding.
The actions and statements of some Corporation and local program officials,
according to some members of Congress and the public, may violate certain
provisions of the LSC Act, the IG Act, and may also constitute fraudulent
activity. In layman's terms, Webster's Dictionary defines fraud as "a deliberate
deception practiced so as to secure unfair or unlawful gain".
Further details appear in the report and appendices, along with conclusions
and recommendations on pages 11 and 12 of the report.
Index of the LSC Case Over-Counting Scandal
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