WP/AP: Hector Barreto Resigns As SBA Chief (he did a heckuva job)

[DeepModem Mom]

Hector Barreto Resigns As SBA Chief
By FRANK BASS
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Small Business Administration chief Hector Barreto resigned Tuesday after a tenure marked by criticism of the agency's response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

President Bush immediately announced a new agency chief, Steven C. Preston, an executive vice president for The ServiceMaster Co. The appointment requires Senate confirmation.

Barreto, a California businessman, was appointed head of the agency in 2001. After the Sept. 11 terror attacks that year, his agency provided nearly $5 billion in economic disaster recovery loans to small businesses across the country.

The Associated Press reported last year, however, that many of the businesses that received loans said they neither wanted nor knew they were receiving money earmarked for terror victims. Companies receiving aid ranged from an Oregon winery to a Virgin Islands perfume bar, drawing outrage on Capitol Hill.

An SBA internal agency investigation confirmed the AP's findings....Barreto also was criticized for his agency's response to the 2005 Gulf hurricanes. A month after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to much of the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts, no loans had been handed out, and the backlog of applications was in the tens of thousands. Although the SBA eventually was able to boast that it approved more than $8 billion in disaster relief loans, lawmakers on Capitol Hill were angered by the delays and high rates of loan rejections....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/25/AR2006042500880.html

[Ecumenist]

1. Incompetency is the one thing you have to demonstrate to

serve under this bunch and it's no surprise, at all.

[NorthernSun]

2. VP of Servicemaster?

I guess wages won't be going up soon.