By LARRY MARGASAK -- The Associated Press
Sept, 23, 2006 -- WASHINGTON -- Directors of the government's legal aid program for the poor secretly debated how to fire the auditor who exposed their expensive meals, use of limousine services and headquarters move to a ritzy neighborhood.
Meeting transcripts obtained by The Associated Press show that Legal Services Corp. board members in 2005 and 2006 disparaged Inspector General Kirt West, whose job is to find fraud, waste and abuse.
In private, the board derided West as abusive, a character assassin, a shoddy investigator with a delusional staff and someone with a "fetish" for independence -- even though independence is an inspector general's hallmark.
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