Postmaster General’s Hiring May Face Probe : Lawmakers Want to Determine if Casey Is Linked to $200-Million High-Tech Equipment Contract

Six House members, citing “grave allegations” about a $200-million postal contract for high-technology equipment, have asked the General Accounting Office to investigate whether the hiring of new Postmaster General Albert V. Casey was linked to the contract.

The members, most of whom head postal oversight panels, wrote a letter Thursday to the GAO citing concern that the Postal Board of Governors hired Casey, former chairman of the board of Dallas-based American Airlines, to increase the chances that a Dallas high-tech firm would be awarded the contract. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Times Friday.

Simmering Fight

The allegations, which Casey has denied, are part of a simmering fight over the Jan. 6 firing of Casey’s predecessor, Paul N. Carlin, who had balked at acquiring the equipment. Postal officials hope the technology--optical scanners that “read” addresses on letters--will dramatically increase production in the beleaguered quasi-private agency.

Some House members, already angry because they had not been notified that Carlin would be fired, now question whether he was removed to pave the way for Recognition Equipment Inc. to win the postal service contract.

Lillian Fernandez, a spokesman for Rep. Robert Garcia (D-N.Y.), who signed the letter, said that the congressman is “concerned about the real reasons for the firing, about what it means about single-source contracts.”

Manufacturer Quoted

At a hearing this week into both the firing and hiring, several congressmen cited a Dallas Times Herald column published in January that quoted Bill Moore, chief executive officer of Recognition Equipment, as saying that the board of governors “has prevailed by firing Carlin and putting in a new man and that the logic of the (Recognition Equipment Inc.) case will now prevail.”

Postal officials said Friday that the contract, for which Recognition Equipment is competing with Electrocom Automation Inc., another Dallas-based firm, is likely to be awarded in late summer.

In their letter, the six House members called on the GAO to make “a comprehensive report addressing all pertinent factual and legal issues” because of “the gravity of the allegations which are contained in, and which may be inferred from,” the Times Herald column.

The column, written by Irwin Frank, said: “Investors probably don’t mind that Robert Crandall, chairman . . . of American Airlines--the airline Casey ran until last year--is on the board of (Recognition Equipment Inc.).”

Denial by Casey

Casey, who from 1963 to 1974 served first as vice president for finance and later as president of Times Mirror Co., publisher of The Times, denied that his relationship with Crandall would influence his position on Recognition Equipment’s bid, Postal Service spokesman Jamison Cain said Friday.

And David F. Harris, secretary of the board of governors, said Friday that “there’s no connection whatsoever” between the contract and Casey’s Dallas background. “If Casey had come from Boise, Ida., they (the board) would have gotten him from Boise.”

Nevertheless, concern about the firing continues on Capitol Hill. At the hearing, Rep. Frank McCloskey (D-Ind.), who also signed the letter, said that questions about the contract do “serious damage to the Postal Service at a time when the entire country is wrestling with the harsh realities of deficit reduction.”

At the same hearing, Garcia accused the board of governors of “politicizing” the process of hiring the postmaster general, questioning whether the nine-year terms of governors “may be too long.”

‘Heavy Cloud’

Louis E. Delgado, staff director for the House Post Office and Civil Service subcommittee on postal operations and services, said Friday that many congressmen see a “heavy cloud” over the Postal Service’s procurement process.

“It’s part of a general fear that the Postal Service doesn’t play fair,” Delgado said.

However, he added, Rep. Mickey Leland (D-Tex.), chairman of the subcommittee, did not sign the letter because “even if some funny business took place in the past, we think it’s over now.”

In addition to McCloskey and Garcia, Reps. William D. Ford (D-Mich.), William L. Clay (D-Mo.), Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) and Gerry Sikorski (D-Minn.) signed the letter.