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IT'S BEEN FASCINATING TO WATCH the Board of Governors and the Postal Rate Commission trade barbs over what they believe is good or bad about postal reform. It's like watching two kids arguing in a playground over what constitutes a fair share of the marbles.

Determining who should do what under a reformed U.S. Postal Service isn't rocket science. The roles of a board of directors and a third-party regulator should be straightforward: Directors direct; regulators regulate.

No one wants an agency like the United Kingdom's postal regulator, but no one wants a postal monopoly with unfettered powers either.

So, for reform to work:

• Incentives must be structured to provide a risk/reward system akin to a competitive private sector enterprise rather than a governmental-bureaucratic model.

• The USPS must be given as much discretion as possible over its products and systems to keep the postal system in step with the country's changing needs.

Reform will fail if the postal service is granted only limited control of the design and operation of its network — from physical facilities to the use of capital and personnel. Likewise, the USPS should have sole responsibility for determining its services' structure. The days of mail classification as a shared responsibility of the postal governors and the PRC should be over.

Once that structure is defined, however, the legality of postal rates should be determined by a new Postal Regulatory Commission, not the governors. The regulator should oversee rate setting, but it should not be empowered to dictate an outcome. When rates and rate adjustments fail to comply with the law, they should be rescinded or denied. The regulator should send the provider back to the drawing board to get things right.

The tragedy is that if the USPS (including the governors) had handled things differently, reform already would be on the books. Instead of demurring, it should have told Congress early and often what it needed to remodel the postal system.

Let's hope it will get on with doing just that.

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GENE A. DEL POLITO is president of the Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom) in Arlington, VA.