U.S. Watchdogs to Police Thrift Selloff : S&Ls;: Regulators will hire 20 to 30 ‘contractor cops.’ They fear kickbacks, rigged bids and other abuses occurring.

The Resolution Trust Corp. plans to hire a special group of employees to watch for possible corruption as it sells hundreds of failed savings and loans, an agency spokeswoman said Friday.

The RTC hopes to set up a team of 20 to 30 “contractor cops” this fall, spokeswoman Kate Spears said. The team, which will oversee the sale of billions of dollars of S&L; assets, will be led by a new assistant director of the RTC to be named in the near future.

“We’re going to be hiring people to work nationwide,” Spears said.

Regulators are haunted by the specter of S&L; fraud, since abuse by some thrift operators was partly responsible for the collapse of hundreds of institutions in recent years. It will cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $500 billion to pay for the bailout of the federally insured thrifts.

In addition to fraud by S&L; insiders, regulators also are sensitive about allegations of abuse stemming from their own efforts to clean up the mess. Democrats in Congress have accused the regulators of making sweetheart deals with outside buyers of failed thrifts.

To help prevent future abuses, the RTC’s new contractor cops will coordinate their efforts with the agency’s inspector general, John Adair, Spears said.

“It looks to us like the opportunities for fraud are going to be enormous,” Adair told the Washington Post. He was not immediately available for comment Friday, RTC spokesmen said.

The new RTC team will keep an eye on the various contractors hired by the agency to sell thrift assets and manage them until they are sold. The new watchdogs will watch for kickbacks, rigged bids and other forms of fraud involving the assets repossessed by failed S&Ls;, which range from office buildings, hotels and condominium developments to car washes and golf courses.