Ex-Aide Details Housing Scandals : HUD: A Housing and Urban Development official convicted of taking bribes describes how a grant was arranged after the developer appealed to then-Vice President Bush.

A former federal housing official, who admits taking bribes, testified today that a federal HUD grant was arranged for a project after its developer appealed to then-Vice President George Bush.

DuBois L. Gilliam, a former deputy assistant secretary of housing and urban development, testified today about scandals at HUD and described in detail how officials there steered projects to political friends, including members of Congress.

Gilliam, who is serving an 18-month federal prison sentence, was testifying under a court grant of immunity from further prosecution.

Under questioning by Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), chairman of the House panel investigating HUD, Gilliam said HUD officials engaged in a grant swap in order to provide $500,000 requested in 1985 to conduct a feasibility study for a Latino trade center in Kansas City, Mo.

Gilliam said that Hector Barreto, then president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, sought a HUD grant for the project but that he first told Barreto that it was not qualified under Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr.’s discretionary fund for special projects.

He said he got a call that afternoon from Deborah Gore Dean, assistant to Pierce, saying Barreto had met with Bush and that “she had received a call from the vice president’s staff asking about the grant, and indicated her desire to try to help get the project funded.”

As a result, Gilliam said, he persuaded a Kansas City assistant city manager to provide the grant from the city’s Community Development Block Grant funds, provided by HUD, and that in turn he arranged to have a special grant go to Kansas City to replace that money.

“In other words, let’s make a deal--you do this and I’ll do this,” Gilliam said.

He did not name the person in the vice president’s office. Gilliam said he was unclear about the connection to Bush’s office, but said Dean had “indicated something . . . about Mr. Barreto going on the vice president’s plane.”

Lantos, before the meeting, described the case this way: “We will hear testimony from Mr. Gilliam about special projects--how a particular project was funded at the request of ‘someone’ in the office of the vice president, in order to get a Hispanic leader to accompany the then-vice president on a plane trip to Puerto Rico.”

Once a trusted assistant to Pierce during the Reagan Administration, Gilliam painted a picture of rampant political abuse at the agency during his initial appearance before the House Governmental Operations subcommittee on employment and housing.

His second round of testimony involved so-called HUD “special project” grants, which were made from the secretary’s discretionary fund.