FederalDaily - May 24, 2007
SBA Names Two New Top Deputies
The Small Business Administration (SBA) on May 22 named two new deputies to head the largest
programs within the agency. Art Collins was named as director of Government Contracting in the SBA
Office of Government Contracting and Business Development, and Grady Hedgespeth as new director of
Financial Assistance in the SBA Office of Capital Access. Collins has held SBA leadership positions
since 1993 and most recently was the deputy associate administrator for Government Contracting—where
he was responsible for overseeing contracting policies and managing departmental programs. A former
secretary of Economic Affairs in Massachusetts, Hedgespeth was previously the CFO and senior vice president
at the Structured Employment and Economic Development Company (SEEDCO), a national community development
intermediary which creates opportunities for low-wage workers. SBA lends or guarantees almost $80 billion
in loans and investments. To see more, go to: www.sba.gov/news
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PEER: USFS A-76 ‘Savings’ Cost Agency $292 Million
U.S. Forest Service (USFS) efforts to reorganize its Information Technology (IT) functions created
a range of operations headaches last year, forced a staffing “burden shift,” and wound
up costing the agency $292 million, an advocacy group said. The Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (PEER), along with the National Federation of Federal Employees Forest Service Council,
on May 22 released documents that PEER said showed less than stellar results of an A-76 reorganization
of the Forest Service’s IT operations into a Most Efficient Organization (MEO). During the process,
USFS restructured IT functions in an effort to generate on-the-books savings. But, PEER said, the effort
resulted in many more Forest Service employees outside the MEO spending substantially more time performing
IT tasks. This “burden shift,” among other things, cost the agency a net operational loss
of $292 million, PEER said. “The Forest Service experience shows how [a MEO] masks a penny-wise
and pound-foolish reality in which a public agency is rendered far less capable than it was before,” said
PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. To see more, go to: www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=859
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Ex-Postal Carrier Pleads Guilty To Drug/Gun Charges
A 42-year-old former U.S. Postal Carrier in Charlottesville, Va., pleaded guilty to a variety of drug
distribution and illegal gun possession charges stemming from allegations that he sold drugs while
on his mail route. Eric Scott Frazier, of Charlottesville, pleaded guilty on May 16, said John Brownlee,
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. Frazier was a carrier in Charlottesville from 1998
until his resignation in May 2007. While Frazier was at work one morning in June 2006, police were
called to respond to a reported home invasion at his house. The attackers at one point demanded marijuana,
family members told police, who subsequently conducted a search of the home and found crack cocaine,
nearly 38 grams of powder cocaine, more than a pound of marijuana and several “ecstasy” pills,
Brownlee said. Witnesses told police that Frazier was often giving away marijuana for free to friends
and that he sold drugs while on his postal route. Frazier faces five to 40 years in prison for the
gun charge and up to 10 years in prison for the drug charge. To see more, go to: www.usdoj.gov/usao/vaw/press_releases/frazier_16may2007.html
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