ATLANTA (AP) – An independent investigation of the Atlanta-area Boy Scouts found that the organization inflated its number of black Boy Scouts by nearly 5,000 in a program for inner city youth – including 200 Scout units that did not exist.

The audit led to the resignation on May 31 of the Atlanta Area Council’s executive director, David Larkin, who said he took full responsibility for his organization’s actions.

The Atlanta Area Council claimed there were 10,238 Scouts in a program designed to increase participation by boys in the country’s poorest areas in 2004, but the audit released May 31 found that only 5,361 were registered, said Edgar Sims Jr., an attorney with the law firm that conducted the audit.

All of the false records were in the Operation First Class program. The program provides the boys’ books, uniforms and other opportunities, including scholarships for camp.

The inflated numbers came about because of pressure on Scout officials assigned to inner city areas to increase their membership numbers, which is a major factor in an official’s performance appraisal. A lack of supervision and leadership also contributed to the falsified rosters, Sims said. The false record keeping dated back as early as 1995, he said.

Eight Scout officials are believed to have participated in the false record keeping, said Tom Gay, president of the council’s board of directors.

The audit found that former Scouts too old to participate remained on the membership lists and that boys who had only attended informational meetings about the program were signed up as entire units, Sims said.

“There were kids signed up who were not provided a real Scouting program,” said Jesse Spikes, an attorney who participated in the audit.

In one example, an official changed the birth date of 87 Cub Scouts so they would still be young enough to participate. In another case, an official continued to report membership of a church Boy Scout unit although the church had burned down three years earlier.

Because the Atlanta council pays the $20 unit charter fee and the $10 individual membership fees of Scouts in the inner city program, auditors estimated more than $256,000 from the council’s general fund – which includes donations – was wrongly diverted to the national Boy Scout organization because of the inflated membership numbers.

Larkin said he was “deeply disappointed both personally and professionally” with the audit’s findings.

“As Scout executive of the Atlanta Area Council, I am charged with overseeing all activities of the organization. When those activities do not reflect the principles and integrity of the Boy Scouts of America, at any level, I take full responsibility,” he said.

Joe Beasley, regional director of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, claimed in October that the 13-county Boy Scouts council was reporting twice as many black participants as were actively involved. Those membership numbers are used to help determine United Way funding.

“The Boy Scouts have to really look at themselves and be willing to be open for real change because the Boy Scouts are needed. I don’t know how many boys possibly could have been saved. There are probably some boys in prison who could have not gone to prison had the money not been stolen,” Beasley said.

The council will work to increase participation of the African-American community in the Scouting program and will work to regain the community’s trust, Gay said.

Georgia Boy Scout officials commissioned a law firm in November to independently investigate the complaint. Directors of Atlanta’s United Way voted May 18 to withhold money for area Boy Scouts pending an investigation. United Way spokesperson Mark Dvorak said his organization declined to comment until its officials reviewed the audit report.

Although the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta’s board of directors unanimously approved a plan that would give Boy Scouts of America-Atlanta Area Council about $1.3 million for 2005, they decided to withhold about $945,000 of it until the board reviewed the audit report.

The remainder of the United Way donation – about $350,000 – still will be given to the Atlanta Area Council because that money is from individuals who specifically asked their donations be sent to the Boy Scout program.

Similar allegations have been made in Alabama, where the FBI is investigating whether the Birmingham-based Greater Alabama Boy Scout Council padded its membership rolls.