Federal Legal-Services Agency Disparaged Whistleblower

Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, a federal agency that supports nonprofit legal aid organizations across the country, debated privately whether to fire the auditor who uncovered the board’s excessive spending, the Associated Press reports.

The corporation’s meeting transcripts show that board members made disparaging remarks about Richard (Kirt) West, the agency’s inspector general, and discussed how to fire him in meetings that took place over the past year.

The corporation said that its programs for free legal aid were turning away half of the applicants because the agency had not received enough money from the federal government.

Yet after conducting a lengthy review of spending by the group’s board members, Mr. West said in August that directors were spending excessively on extravagant meals and transportation.

Mr. West also reported the corporation was overpaying by nearly $1.8-million on its 10-year lease at its new headquarters in an upscale Georgetown neighborhood. The corporation is financed with a $330-million appropriation from the federal government, most of which it distributes to 138 nonprofit legal aid groups around the country.

After learning in April that the board was secretly discussing firing Mr. West, several senators sent a letter warning the board’s chairman, Frank Strickland, that firing Mr. West, “would be an egregious action in light of the fact that Mr. West is investigating you.”

Mr. Strickland and Mr. West declined to comment on the board discussions, but the board’s vice chairwoman, Lillian BeVier, said in an interview, “What we were trying to do was find a way to make a decision and find out whether impressions some members had were correct.”