Scouts' Honor Tarnished; Audit Reveals BSA Officials' Falsified Data
by Chad Groening
June 6, 2005
(AgapePress) - After discovering exaggerated membership statistics in a Boy Scouts of America outreach program, the National Council of the BSA says it has taken steps to prevent local scouting organizations from inflating their membership rolls.Recently an independent audit revealed that the Atlanta Boy Scouts organization overstated its number of black scouts by more than 5,000 in a program designed for inner city youth. Auditors said scouting officials may have felt pressure to demonstrate membership growth. However, since discovering the discrepancy, the BSA has demonstrated zero tolerance for false accounting.
National BSA spokesman Gregg Shields says some individuals lost their positions with the Atlanta Boy Scouts Council after the inaccurate reporting was discovered. "The executive director has resigned," he notes, adding that the former BSA official "said that he was not aware of the membership inflation, but that he recognized that he was in charge, so he resigned."
Moreover, Shields adds, "Some of the people at the Council who were found to be responsible have been removed; they're not working there anymore. So we take these things very, very seriously."
Fortunately, the National BSA official emphasizes, the audit revealed no financial misconduct. "This report found that all the money that was given to the Atlanta Council for Operation First Class, which was designed to reach at-risk youth, was spent for that purpose," he says. "There was no financial impropriety."
However, Shields points out, the Federal Bureau of Investigations is looking into similar allegations of membership inflation at the Birmingham-based Alabama Boy Scout Council. He says it has been difficult and painful for the national organization to deal with indications of dishonesty and impropriety among its ranks.
The National Council is going to make "some revisions and improvements" to its procedures to prevent "any kind of membership falsification in the future," Shields states. "We're dedicated to accurate reporting," the BSA spokesman says.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
