This story ran last August in the News Journal of Delaware, sorry for my delayed reaction:
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2015/08/03/new-director-searches-funding-delawares-poor/31075501/
A story quote: "IOLTA funds are generated when an attorney holds a client’s money in a short-term, interest-bearing account, such as holding in escrow a down payment on a house. The interest – often less than a penny – is pooled, creating millions of dollars in grants that help fund legal aid societies in all 50 states.
However, IOLTA funding dried up as interest rates dropped and the housing bubble burst in 2008. This has left legal aid societies around the nation struggling to stay open".
CLASI in Delaware saw its IOLTA funding go from about $1.5 million in 2008 to about $200,000 this year, Atkins said. The staff had to be reduced from 24 attorneys to 15 attorneys, and from 58 total employees to 39.
These cuts came as the demand for legal aid grew. Now CLASI has to turn away four out of five people who comes seeking assistance, said Atkins, who has been at CLASI for 25 years.
It is disingenuous, at best to lay the financial and staffing woes of the Delaware Community Legal Aid Society (CLASI) at the proverbial feet of the hosing bubble burst of 2008. Lets break it down and keep it real:
In 2010, the United States Department of Justice issued their findings of an investigation into the Delaware Community Legal Aid Society.
To summarize, the investigation found questionable spending, fraud and waste to the tune of $829,000 of Federal grant money.
I have included both the link and excerpts from the investigation as well. I might add, my attempts to find out what became of the employees involved in the fraudulent activity was futile. I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Delaware Attorney General's Office, but was snubbed on three different occasions:
The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Audit Division, has completed an audit of an Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program award, grant number 2005-WL-AX-0056, awarded to the Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI). Between July 2005 and September 2007, OVW awarded CLASI a total of $891,422 distributed through a grant and two supplements. The purpose of the OVW grant program was to provide legal services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and/or stalking. The objective of the CLASI grant was to provide legal representation to victims in family court matters, including divorce and divorce-related matters, and other matters related to domestic violence.
We asked CLASI officials about whether any incidents of fraud or any other illegal acts or irregularities occurred during the period of the OVW grant we reviewed. We were told about a misappropriation of funds not specific to the OVW grant that involved unauthorized payroll disbursements made by a CLASI employee. CLASI officials identified the fraud and took appropriate actions to address the issue. We discussed this issue with OVW and determined that it was not aware of this misappropriation, nor was CLASI designated as a high-risk grantee as a result of such an issue. According to an OVW official, “OVW is in the process of inquiring as to why CLASI did not make the high-risk list which would have been a factor considered in determining their grant award. At the very least, their award would have contained the high-risk conditions
"The ultimate effect of this deficiency was fraudulent activity within the payroll department.”
“…the payroll clerk overpaid herself a gross amount of $6,860.79.
Mr. Atkins, was a part of the CLASI structure (25 years) when these issues were occurring, but maybe now that he is the head honcho, reforms can be accomplished. However, this cannot happen if we simply erase and cover up the parts of history that doesn't fit our narrative.
One good step in the right direction would be to stop gender bias where they only represent an alleged female victim of domestic violence and openly deny a male who either an alleged victim or an alleged perpetrator.
https://oig.justice.gov/grants/2010/g7010005.pdf
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oig.justice.gov
office on violence against women legal assistance for victims grant program administered by the community legal aid society, inc. wilmington, delaware
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Gordon Smith
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