Washington -- William F. Gibson has moved again to muzzle Coopers & Lybrand auditors on the eve of tomorrow's vote that may end his 10-year reign as board chairman of the NAACP.
Sources at NAACP headquarters in Baltimore tell me that Dr. Gibson is trying desperately to prevent the board from learning lTC the exact amounts of his credit-card transactions; about plane tickets for his female companion paid for by the NAACP, or about the $126,000 limousine bill that the NAACP ran up between November 1993 and January 1995.
Wednesday, the independent auditing firm was given a curious directive by the executive committee, which Dr. Gibson controls. The auditors were told that if they give a preliminary report to the NAACP board, "The presentation should contain no references to specific officers or individual expenditures. . . . No written document of any nature should be handed out during the presentation and no questions should be taken regarding individuals or expenditures."
The board will vote tomorrow either to retain Dr. Gibson as chairman or to elect Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of the murdered civil-rights hero, Medgar Evers.
Coopers & Lybrand insists on telling the board what it has uncovered without restrictions. Board members say there will be a colossal struggle to overrule the executive committee in meetings today and tomorrow at the Sheraton Hotel in New York.
Dr. Gibson moved to gag or exclude Coopers & Lybrand after staffers in Baltimore told him that the auditors had seen American Express records showing that in addition to official NAACP air-travel and hotel bills totaling tens of thousands of dollars, Dr. Gibson made further credit-card charges in the following aggregate amounts:
1989 -- $39,400.63.
1991 -- $52,694.61.
1994 -- $59,275.52.
Most of these charges were for items the auditors may declare "personal" and not legally chargeable to the NAACP.
In addition, Dr. Gibson was receiving a $3,000-a-month "stipend" that was never approved by the board. He was also taking tens of thousands of dollars in checks marked "travel expense reimbursement," "board expenses, receipts to be supplied," "travel, per diem," "advance on travel expenses" and other alleged justifications. Dr. Gibson never provided receipts or otherwise accounted for these funds.
I am told that Dr. Gibson is especially worried that Coopers & Lybrand might know of an April 23, 1993, check for $3,000 that he signed personally and deposited in his account for his services as "transition consultant."
NAACP employees also have shown auditors a Pan American ticket purchased on September 21, 1989, for a round trip between New York and Washington and a USAir ticket, dated November 25, 1989, from Dr. Gibson's hometown of Greenville, South Carolina, to the resort town of Myrtle Beach in the same state. These tickets for Marva Smalls, a special friend of Dr. Gibson, were charged to his credit card and paid for by the NAACP.
One NAACP source says the auditors know that Dr. Gibson and the fired former executive director, Benjamin Chavis, in 13 months ran up $126,000 in limo charges with Red Top Limousine, a Virginia company in suburban Washington.
Dr. Gibson is embattled on other fronts. Lawsuits have been filed in Washington, Baltimore, Columbia, South Carolina, and New York, either accusing Dr. Gibson and his associates of sexual harassment and illegal use of funds or seeking a court order to strip him of power to use NAACP funds.
Several of Dr. Gibson's supporters are abandoning him. Bishop William H. Graves of Memphis has joined Mrs. Evers-Williams' slate as a candidate for national president. The current vice chairman, Ben Andrews of Connecticut, has said that he will vote for Myrlie Evers. It appears that the cash-starved, splintered NAACP is about to undergo great changes.
Carl T. Rowan is a syndicated columnist.