
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 5, 1993                   TAG: 9310050074
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

BAILOUT WHISTLES TO BLOW

Clinton administration officials promised Monday to encourage whistle-blowing at the savings and loan cleanup agency and urged speedy confirmation of the embattled nominee to head it.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, who is filling in as acting chief executive of the Resolution Trust Corp., told the agency's employees they should contact his office if necessary, bypassing the usual complaint channels.

"I will ensure that any allegations raised in this manner will be promptly investigated and addressed at the most senior management levels," he said in a memo sent to all employees.

"I want to emphasize that it is RTC policy to encourage employees to report suspected waste, fraud and abuse and mismanagement."

Complaints against the RTC's inspector general will be referred to the Treasury Department's inspector general.

At a meeting of the administration's Thrift Depositor Protection Oversight Board, which sets the policies governing the thrift cleanup agency, Altman and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said they continued to support the nomination of Florida real estate developer Stanley Tate to be the new chief executive of the RTC.

Altman's pledge to encourage whistle-blowing came a week and a half after 13 current and former RTC employees testified before the Senate Banking Committee about numerous irregularities in the agency, including contract steering, managerial incompetence, retaliation against whistle-blowers and sexual harassment by managers.

by CNB