Revised regulations (Appendix B) 

 were adopted and published in the 

 Federal Register. Changes in internal 

 and Small Business Administration 

 procedures helped to reduce the aver- 

 age processing time and enabled all 

 progranri employees to understand bet- 

 ter the principals followed in reaching 

 final decisions. 



ORGANIZATION AND STAFF 



The organization of the Office of 

 Loans and Grants was changed during 

 fiscal year 1959 by transferring line 

 supervision of field employees to the 

 Regional and Area offices of the Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries, As a result 



of this action, the number of field 

 offices remained the same, but their 

 physical locations were changed in 

 certain instances. Four full-time and 

 one half-time professional employees 

 and two full-time clerical eniployees 

 conducted field operations. Three pro- 

 fessional and three clerical employees 

 continued to staff the central office. 

 During the last half of the fiscal year 

 a financial specialist, detailed fronn the 

 Small Business Administration, worked 

 on a review of outstanding loans and 

 on the anticipated Fishing Vessel 

 Mortgage Insurance Program. An 

 organizational chart (fig. 1) shows the 

 organization of the office at the end 

 of the fiscal year. 



Figure 1.- -Office of Loans and Grants organization chart, June 30, 1959. 



STATUS OF THE LOAN FUND 



During fiscal year 1959, 135 appli- 

 cations totaling $2,879,000 were re- 

 ceived. This made a total of 586 

 applications for $18,902,000 received 

 since the program began. During the 

 year 76 loans totaling $1,455,000 were 

 approved, 43 for $712,000 were de- 

 clined, 13 for $246,000 were declared 

 ineligible, 13 for $184,000 were with- 

 drawn, and 24 for $3,102,000 were 

 being processed or were held in a 

 deferred status at the request of the 

 applicants. From the beginning of the 

 program 318 loans totaling $7,722,000 

 have been approved, 150 for $4,251,000 

 have been declined, 52 for $1,191,000 

 were declared ineligible, and 42 for 



$1,679,000 were withdrawn by the ap- 

 plicants. Figures 2, 3, 4, and 5 show 

 the number and value of applications 

 received and loans approved by areas 

 during fiscal year 1959. Figures 6, 7, 

 8, and 9 show similar cumulative in- 

 formation for fiscal years 1957 to 1959, 

 inclusive. 



The largest increase in applications 

 came from the Pacific Northwest and 

 the shrimp fishery of the South Atlantic 

 Jind Gulf States. In California the loan 

 emphasis shifted to albacore vessels 

 as clipper (bait boat) operations were 

 unprofitable due to lower prices and 

 labor troubles. A few clippers were 

 converted to purse seiners by the use 

 of private financing and substantially 



