Evening star., 1952-02-04
Millions Were Wasfet
In Farm Storage Plan.
House Unit Charges

4 s f
A House subcommittee charges
the Agriculture Department vast
ed millions Of dollars In running
the Governments farm storage
program.
In addition, the unit says. the
Agriculture Departments ''gross
negligence and administrative
weakness has allowed warehouse
men to- steal other millions Of
dollars worth Of Government COM
moditieS.
The subcommittee called on the
department TO tighten its control
over the storage program. fire a
number of employees, and jail dis
honest warehousemen instead Of
giving them new Government con-
Itracts-as the department has
been doing.
Brannan Is Heard.
The scathing appraisal Of the
Governments handling Of the
|farm storage program came from
Ia House Appropriations subconl-
Fmittee headed by Representative
Written of Mississippi. The group,
lin closed-door hearings, heard tes-
|timony from Secretary of Agri-
culture Brannan. COMMITTEES
members kept him on the defen-
lsive day after day. The suhcom-
mittee, while complaining that MIR.
|Brannan had not supplied all the
information requested. found that:
/. The department went to
millions of dollars Of unnecessary
expense" in hiring private storage
facilities when the Government
had many vacant warehouses.
Double Leasing Charged.
2. The Government, with mo
justification" leased Fedora !
warehouses to private operators
who promptly leased the ware
houses back to the Government
flor commodity storage at profit
to themselves.
8. The Agriculture Department
failed to inspect much Of the bill
lions of dollars worth Of grain
land other commodities it has in
storage. When spot checks url-
covered shortages, the Govern
Iment usually offered to forget the
affair If the warehouseman made
lup the shortage. Criminal prose-
lcutions are needed, the subcom-
|mittee said.
&. A spot check Of 1876 grain
elevators In the Texas area un-
covered shortages In 81 bins ST
Iper cent-and suspected shortages
lin 20 others. Known shortages
in this area totaled nearly "a
million. There is no estimate of
| shortages for the entire country.
but the Government will be able
TO recover q large part Of the
losses.
Employees Received Gifts. -
5. Fifteen employees Of an Agri-
culture Department office in Dali
|las received gratuities including
500 gift certificates, whisky, hats,
binoculars. small radios, outings,
football and baseball tickets and
lesser items.
E The Governement has had up to
4S.6 billion worth of goods in stor-
age. but supplies at the last esti-
mate totaled about 50 billion.
Finding storage space for all Of
this has been q major headache
Tor Mr.. Brannan. He told the
subcommittee the Department had
been going on an Interpretation
that the Law required the depart
ment to store goods in private
warehouses when they were avail
|able-even though Government
buildings were empty. The sub
committee said this Interpretation
was an error, adding that "there
can be no question" that the de.
|partment had right to store
goods in Federal buildings.
Administration Blamed.
The subcommittee blamed some
of the other difficulties on "ad-
ministrative weakness within the
Department" and pressed for
closer inspection of supplies In
storage. Previous information
from the Agriculture Department
showed that the department had
only about II persons to spot
check $4,000 storage buildings.
Secretary Brannan said Congress
had not given him enough money
to hire more inspectors. The sub
committee replied tartly that Con-
.gress had given Secretary Bran
nan all the money he had re-
quested and he never asked for
more inspectors.