
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 29, 1994                   TAG: 9407290091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CONGRESS BROWBEATS POSTMASTER

Angry members of Congress berated Postmaster General Marvin Runyon on Thursday for allowing the quality of mail service to deteriorate, citing reports of millions of pieces of mail found stashed in trucks and letters arriving weeks or months late in the nation's capital.

``You have focused on cutting overhead and may have left the Postal Service in a state of unpreparedness,'' Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told Runyon in one of several heated exchanges before a House committee.

As much as 75 percent of the mail handled at a huge processing center in Maryland has been subject to delays, complained Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., citing a report by Postal Service inspectors.

Virginia Rep. Leslie Byrne, D-Fairfax, said that Postal Service managers sometimes order the altering of date stamps on bags of mail to hide delivery delays. She also claimed that officials had hidden some delayed mail on a day when she toured a postal processing center.

Runyon pledged to improve service, blaming a Postal Service ``culture'' that sometimes allows local management officials to act like ``dictators.''

- Los Angeles Times

by CNB