Gilliam Says Pierce Ordered Grant to Friend

WASHINGTON —  An imprisoned former Housing and Urban Development official testified today that former Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. directed federal grants to friends, including a “down-and-out” former campaign manager.

DuBois L. Gilliam said Pierce ordered one $350,000 grant because his friend and former political manager, Sam Singletary, needed help.

The grant was arranged despite the lack of a request from a city that was to benefit from the project, and a lack of experience by Singletary and his partner, who applied for the grant as a nonprofit private group, Gilliam said.

The grants, along with others Gilliam described, were from the department’s technical assistance program, with money coming from the secretary’s discretionary program.

Gilliam testified that virtually all the money from that program was distributed based on political connections--and that he and Pierce both expressed surprise when they discovered that one applicant for a grant on their approved list had no political connections.

The committee chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), said the program “was administered politically, as a cross between a slush fund and a political action committee.”

“The whole scheme is so incredible, so unreal,” Lantos said.

Gilliam said he traveled to Camden, N.J., to meet with the mayor to persuade him that HUD intended to provide the $350,000 grant to Singletary’s group if he would go along with the project, which was intended to help the city with community development projects.

He said Pierce “indicated he wanted to help Mr. Singletary get some funds. He was down and out. . . . And I did so. . . . He told me to fund the project.”