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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 28, 1993                   TAG: 9303010215
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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HURRY UP, RENO

THE SOUPCON of criticism that has surfaced concerning Janet Reno - the president's nominee for attorney general - is that the Dade County, Fla., prosecutor may not attack public corruption with sufficient spine or enthusiasm.

Reno will have the chance to prove her critics wrong when, following her expected confirmation, she takes over at Justice. A good way to start: Get tough collecting penalties owed the government by white-collar crooks fingered in the savings-and-loan scandal.

More than 100 S&L crooks were able to escape long prison terms in exchange for promised financial restitution. But that restitution is coming slowly. According to the Associated Press, S&L defendants have repaid less than a half-penny per dollar on legal commitments totaling $134 million.

Which, of course, is a further rip-off of taxpayers who already must cover more than $300 billion in costs for the S&L debacle over the next four decades.

Justice has largely left the collection task to overworked probation and parole officers. Says a Government Accounting Office analyst, Harold Valentine: "These parole or probation people are trained to find the guy who has skipped his past two meetings, not [to] find money hidden in dummy corporations."

The government's failure to get serious with the deadbeats is unacceptable. It amounts to Justice winking at continuing S&L fraud. Hurry up, Reno.

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