The financial crisis that led the NAACP to furlough most of its employees last week is part of a longstanding pattern of unusual financial practices and cash flow problems, according to sworn statements by two officers that were examined by The Washington Post.
Depositions given in September by Treasurer Jerry L. Maulden and Board Chairman William F. Gibson indicate that the organization routinely operated in the red and had a "liquid asset deficit" of $500,000 when Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. became its executive director in April 1993, the newspaper reported Saturday.National leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have claimed that Chavis alone created the organization's current $3.8 million deficit. They said Chavis' financial mismanagement contributed to his firing in August. But the depositions suggest that the financial troubles may have dated to the term of his predecessor, Benjamin L. Hooks, the Post said. Hooks has insisted there was no deficit when he retired.
Gibson declined comment Saturday, saying he was in the midst of a telephone conference call meeting of an NAACP committee.
The auditing firm of Price Waterhouse has been working with the NAACP to sort out its tangled finances.