Audit Shows Alabama Boy Scouts Council Inflated Membership Numbers

The Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America, in Birmingham, inflated its membership rolls by more than 13,000 boys over three years, according to an audit released Friday, The Birmingham News reports.

The council’s executive committee said most of the memberships in question were linked to a program set up to serve inner-city youths. Allegations surfaced in 2004 that high-ranking Boy Scout officials in the Alabama group were inflating enrollment numbers to secure grants.

The audit was conducted by an Alabama accounting firm. John Hayden, the Alabama council’s chairman, said the council gave the audit to the U.S. attorney’s office and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

He said the audit’s report did not provide enough details to determine if some Scout units had been fabricated, but promised that the council will continue investigating.

The departure of the Alabama group’s top executive, Ronnie Holmes, was also announced on Friday, but Mr. Hayden declined to discuss details of Mr. Holmes’s departure.