ORTEGO SELECTED AS DIRECTOR OF USDA'S NATIONAL FINANCE CENTER
                                                               
                                            Release No. 0246.97
                                                               
                                   Laura Trivers (202) 720-4623
                                       laura.trivers@usda.gov  
                                   Ron Hall      (202) 720-5747
                                              ron.hall@usda.gov

ORTEGO SELECTED AS DIRECTOR OF USDA'S NATIONAL FINANCE CENTER

     WASHINGTON, July 23, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced
today that John R. Ortego has been selected as director of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's National Finance Center (NFC). 

     "John Ortego has both the technical and managerial experience to lead
the National Finance Center into the 21st Century as the premiere
administrative payment and financial center in the federal government,"
Glickman said.  "We are fortunate to have a manager like John on our team."

     Ortego is a career civil servant with 27 years of experience in the
federal government.  From January 1997 until joining USDA he served as deputy
assistant commissioner for the Office of Information Technology Integration
(ITI) in the General Services Administration. ITI is a Washington, D.C.-based
technical services program with annual revenues approaching $2 billion.  While
there, Ortego spearheaded the "Seat Management" Services initiative, an
innovative government-wide program that is expected to change how the
government acquires and manages desk-top computing.

     Located in New Orleans, the National Finance Center is the operational
component of USDA's Office of the Chief Financial Officer.  NFC designs,
develops, and operates cost-effective financial, administrative, and
management information systems for USDA and other Federal agencies.  NFC also
manages a pay and personnel system for approximately 450,000 Federal
employees.  It also operates the Federal Thrift Savings Plan System, the
retirement system for all the federal employees hired since 1984 plus a
voluntary savings plan option for thousands of other federal employees.  NFC,
one of the largest federal operations in the New Orleans area, employs more
than 1,700 people. 

     Ortego began his federal career in 1970 as an auditor with the U.S.
General Accounting Office in New Orleans, where he worked until 1981. From
1981 to 1986 he served in several management positions with the Department of
Veterans Affairs Data Processing Center in Austin, Texas. He then joined ITI
in GSA in 1986 as director of FEDSIM (Federal Systems Integration and
Management), one of ITI's operational programs.

     Since 1989 Ortego has served as a Board Member of the Government
Information Technology Executive Council, and was its president in 1992.  He
also chaired the Vice President's National Performance Review Data Center
Consolidation initiative in 1995. 

     A native of Washington, La., Ortego holds a B.S degree in business
management from the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

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