Prosecutors to Get House Postal Evidence : Congress: Lawmakers also will forward reports on mismanagement to the ethics panel, but split along party lines over some parts of the inquiry.

WASHINGTON — The House voted, 414 to 0, Wednesday to send evidence that it has gathered on disarray and mismanagement in its own post office to federal prosecutors and the House Ethics Committee for review and further investigation.

But the chamber split sharply along partisan lines on some aspects of its inquiry: Republicans and Democrats filed separate reports on the propriety of the practice by some members of using House employees to deliver campaign funds to Capitol Hill offices from special post office boxes.

The GOP report named seven current members of the House--including Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee--who it said benefited from the courier service.

Rostenkowski denied wrongdoing, saying: “I never asked anyone on the post office staff or any other government employee to pick up campaign-related mail. And, to my knowledge, no person ever did so.”

Federal law, the Republicans asserted, forbids campaign contributions from being received in any room or building occupied for official purposes.

But the Democratic report rejected claims of improper conduct, saying: “In the complete absence of even an iota of evidence of wrongdoing, the (Democratic members of the) committee has chosen not to identify the box holders.”

The Democrats based their argument on a legal point, contending that the official location for receipt of the contributions was the post office box, not the offices.

The Democrats also rejected news reports that “ghost workers”--employees who do no work--were put on the post office payroll. Their report named only two workers in low-level jobs whom it said were sometimes difficult to locate during normal working hours.

The Democratic report also said that there was no evidence to support claims that members of Congress cashed large checks from campaign funds for cash at the post office. While clerks often cashed personal checks, it said, there was nothing sinister about the practice.

Despite the bitter political divisions, both Democrats and Republicans agreed that the House post office was rife with favoritism, plagued by incompetent workers and careless about handling cash under its previous management.

“We are moving into a new era,” said Rep. Charlie Rose (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Administration Committee. “The problems of the post office are behind us.”

A federal grand jury, however, is investigating operations of the post office to determine whether any criminal laws were broken.

Former Postmaster Robert V. Rota, who resigned March 29--seven weeks after the House voted to investigate reports of embezzlement and drug sales in its postal facilities, declined to cooperate with the investigation by invoking the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

Even so, testimony by some of Rota’s aides and others described the post office as a place where political connections provided absolute job security. They also claimed that the postmaster wildly over-estimated the volume of mail to justify hiring scores of extra employees.

The Democratic report, for example, cited “the constant state of chaos” in the office of James Smith, the postmaster’s assistant for accountable papers. Money and stamps were scattered about and Smith once had to search for a stack of $100 bills that he had misplaced, the report said.

Smith, originally hired as a patronage employee of Rostenkowski’s, frequently made loans ranging from $10 to $200 to co-workers, but the Democratic report said that it was impossible to tell whether the money came from personal or office funds because of Smith’s sloppy record-keeping.

The Democrats also disclosed that Jerry Carter, former director of maintenance who was Rota’s personal driver, was paid for an average of 37 hours of overtime each week during a five-month period.

“The Task Force has reason to believe that Mr. Carter was not performing government business during the entire time that he indicated he was working,” the Democratic report said. In another overtime abuse, the report said, post office Chief of Staff Joanna O’Rourke approved overtime for two of her daughters who also worked there.

The Democratic report recommended the firing of O’Rourke, Smith and Carter, as well as Deputy Postmaster Nancy Collins as part of an overhaul of the post office. Smith had declined to testify, citing the Fifth Amendment. None of the four could be reached for comment.

Both Republican and Democratic reports praised the improved management in the postal facility since Michael J. Shinay, an experienced executive with the U.S. Postal Service, was named acting postmaster this spring.

Members of both parties recommended that the patronage hiring system for the 160-employee facility be eliminated and replaced by hiring based on merit. They also suggested that the entire operation be placed under the control of a new House manager for non-legislative services to be appointed soon.

But the most divisive issue centered on the delivery by House employees of campaign funds from special postal boxes in a nearby U.S. post office to the offices of House members--a practice that began in the mid-1970s.

Last March, the GOP report said, the couriers were getting mail for Democratic Reps. Nicholas Mavroules of Massachusetts, Dennis M. Hertel of Michigan, Mary Rose Oakar of Ohio, Jim Moody of Wisconsin and Edward F. Feighan of Ohio. All have denied wrongdoing.

In addition, the report added, documents retained by the House post office recorded postal boxes for the American Leadership Fund, a leadership political action committee under control of Rostenkowski, and for Rep. Jan Meyers (R-Kan.).