Lawmakers protest law center refusal to comply with auditors

Friday, April 24, 1998 | 1:44 a.m.

Legislative auditor Gary Crews told a legislative panel on Thursday that the audit came to a halt after the director and lawyer for the center refused to give up records needed to conduct it.

The center is a private, nonprofit group that uses state and federal money to protect the rights of the disabled.

Because it is private, director Jack Mayes and lawyer Gloria Stendardi said they cannot and will not give personnel records or client records to the state.

Stendardi said such records are confidential and can only be given to federal auditors.

"There's no exception for the kind of access state auditors here wanted," she said.

Mayes called the auditors as unprofessional.

Crews said his staff doesn't need specific names and that he instructed them not to talk to Mayes' people.

Two former center staffers, Connie Ewing and Dierdre Hammon, confirmed that, saying they were eventually terminated for wanting to expose problems in the agency.

The preliminary audit raised questions about whether some cases were reported to federal funding authorities more than once, accused the center of violating its own policies for expenditures, severance pay, employee travel and equipment purchases.

It also charged that the center has violated more than one federal law in its reporting and fiscal practices. And the auditors complained they were unable to do a proper evaluation because they were denied files and access to employees.

Crews told the audit subcommittee he would be forced to question any data they did make available to him now.

Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, who heads the audit subcommittee, and Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, made it clear they plan to find a way to either see the books or end the center's contracts to handle issues involving disabled people.

"It's still all taxpayer money, state or federal," Dini said.

"You have the mandate to see that the rights of these people are upheld," Rawson said. "We have the obligation to see that is done correctly."