ATLANTA (AP) – The United Way voted to withhold more than a quarter of its planned $945,000 in funding to the Atlanta Boy Scouts after an audit revealed nearly 5,000 boys, most of them minorities, were falsely registered in an inner-city program.

The $250,000 that was withheld was earmarked to fund Operation First Class, an initiative that sought to expand scouting among minorities in urban areas.

United Way is still giving $695,000 to the Atlanta area Scouts for other programs. But the remainder won’t be restored until the Scouts show greater accountability.

“The spirit of this is not punitive, it’s meant to be helpful,” said United Way of Atlanta President Mark O’Connell.

The charity group’s decision comes after the results of the independent audit prompted the group’s local director to resign and shocked national headquarters.

“This is something we had no idea about,” Tom Gay, president of the Atlanta Area Council’s board of trustees, told United Way officials before the vote, urging them to look past the “embarrassment.”

Afterward, he seemed grateful the Scouts received most of the money the United Way had previously set aside for the Boy Scouts. The discretionary $945,000 at issue was separate from $335,000 that had been earmarked by donors specifically for Atlanta Area Council of Boy Scouts programs.

“We think it was appropriate that we continue to work together,” Gay said. “We think they’ve taken the correct course of action.”

Others found the decision encouraging.

“The Boy Scouts have clearly not been forthcoming to the community,” said Joseph Beasley, Southeast director of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. “They thought United Way would just roll over.”

Beasley lodged the initial complaint in the fall that alleged there were no more than 500 blacks in Operation First Class, a program that claimed more than 10,000 boys. The program provides the boys’ registration fees, books, uniforms and other opportunities, including scholarships for camp.

When the audit was released in May, Atlanta Area Council Executive David Larkin resigned, taking full responsibility for the false records.

The audit found that former scouts too old to participate in the program remained on the roster, as did boys who only attended informational meetings.

One scout leader changed the birth date of 87 Cub Scouts and another official reported a Boy Scout unit at a church that had burned down three years ago, the report found.

It also raised concerns that falsifying membership rosters may be a broader problem, as the FBI is investigating whether the Birmingham-based Greater Alabama Boy Scout Council padded its membership rolls.

Scout leaders apologized to the United Way, which uses membership figures to determine funding.

“We are doing everything we can to ensure we never have to talk about this subject again,” said Joe Arnold, co-chair of a task force investigating the false reporting.

Accountability standards that were long ignored are now being used and each chapter will be bolstered by more direct supervision, Arnold said.

The greatest change, however, will come in the group’s approach, said Jim Terry, the interim director of the Atlanta scouts.

“We will no longer measure success by growth,” Terry said, adding that leaders will now rely on attendance and participation to gauge progress.