Word: gsa
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Sharp Whistle. A wealthy Chicago textile manufacturer, Mansure, 54, had run GSA since May 1953. In the process he had built a reputation as a money-saving, detail man. So meticulous that he separates the meat from the potatoes when eating beef hash, he saved paper clips, and put three-minute egg timers on subordinates' desks to shorten telephone calls. But Mansure's fine eye for housekeeping details (which won the praise of the Hoover Commission) was not always matched by a clear view of the bigger picture. He seemed to have one standard for office efficiency...
Last August FORTUNE, in a microscopic study of GSA operations, blew a sharp whistle on Mr. Mansure. He had stubbornly kept on the payroll, in important positions, many of the political hacks who had given GSA a bad name under the Truman Administration. What's more, there was evidence that his own personal political friends were scooping up some brow-raising favors...
...Hand. His closest political pal was one William J. Balmer, a Republican power in Chicago since the second corrupt reign (1927-31) of "Big Bill" Thompson. An old hand at doing business with GSA (the Justice Department is suing him for $400,000 on the ground that he used fraudulent means to buy surplus Government property), Balmer sponsored Mansure for the GSA job, and then began to advise him frequently on important contracts. At just the right time Balmer registered as an insurance broker and obtained, through Mansure's GSA, a whopping insurance contract at the U.S. Government...
After Strobel was through testifying, GSA Chief Mansure told newsmen that he would let Strobel resign. Said Mansure: "Strobel has done nothing really wrong, but he just didn't use good judgment." He added that Strobel had not only put off signing the GSA's standard no conflict-of-interest pledge for half a year, but that it also took months to get a list of his firm's clients...
Snapped Strobel, who has been fighting with Mansure over GSA procedures: "I didn't want anybody snooping around my private business. Besides, I had other things to do. I was working 12 hours a day. If they want to get rid of me, they'll have to fire me. I'm not the kind of man who runs...