Lawrence’s tax abatement recipients aren’t such laggards after all, a new report suggests.

But some critics are skeptical.

City officials on Thursday unveiled a draft report showing 13 companies that received tax abatements in 2001 combined to create 251 more full-time jobs than they had promised when they were applying for the breaks.

The new draft arrived three weeks to the day after an earlier draft of the same report showed the companies were a combined 263 jobs short of what they had pledged.

Under the new accounting, the companies had a total of 514 more full-time jobs than they did in the earlier report.

“We have quite a few changes from the last draft,” City Clerk Frank Reeb acknowledged during a meeting of the Public Incentives Review Committee.

“We think these numbers are more accurate in getting to the type of information that we’re after,” he said.

Kirk McClure, a committee member in favor of modifying or revoking abatements for underperforming companies, was skeptical.

“At this point, it’s a little hard to trust the numbers,” he said.

Mayor Sue Hack, a member of the committee, disagreed.

“Each time we’re doing this, I think we’re honing in on what we’re looking for,” she said.

One item of contention was the report from E and E Specialties, which received an abatement from the city in 1992 for building improvements and new equipment.

The earlier draft showed E and E, which manufactures store displays, was 101 full-time employees short of what it had promised in its abatement application, but with 312 more part-time workers than pledged. The new report showed the company was 88 full-time workers above projections.

Daryl Morgison, E and E’s chief executive officer, said in a letter to city officials that information about the company in the earlier draft report wasn’t correct.

Labor shortages in Lawrence forced the company to partner with Spherion, an employment agency, to make up the difference in its needed labor force. Through Spherion, Morgison said, E and E employed the equivalent of 312 full-time, temporary workers, which should have been counted toward its employment projections instead of as part-timers.

“We cannot predict such events,” Morgison wrote. “We can only respond to them in a manner that is best for our company and our employees.”

Committee members asked Reeb to further clarify some numbers, including wage reports, before they send the report to the Lawrence City Commission.

“It may be that we can’t make the kinds of decisions we want to make the way the information is presented here,” said Leni Salkind, a committee member.

The committee’s next meeting is 4 p.m. Oct. 3 at City Hall.