Federal officials kept saying the tankers were on the way, and spoke vaguely of missed communications and bureaucratic mix-ups.

Ms. Morgan accepted a plea bargain but was sent back to jail because of a bureaucratic mix-up.

Through an apparent bureaucratic mix-up, Ms. Cook was not told - as the law requires - that her only child, Bernadette, had been taken into custody.

Many of his characters must battle red tape and bureaucratic mix-ups, sometimes making humorous end-runs around the system.

He starts getting in touch with the Veterans Administration and other agencies, trying to find out what kind of bureaucratic mix-up occurred.

Other instances of unfounded reports, experts say, may result from well-intentioned mistakes or bureaucratic mix-ups.

They remained in Africa, and a refugee agency closed their case because of a minor bureaucratic mix-up.

Later, James Lyons, the Under Secretary of Agriculture, who was sent by the President, said there had been a bureaucratic mix-up.

But many people said they could not wait that long, or did not have the patience to deal with all the bureaucratic mix-ups.

"He wasn't angry; he was just kind of irritated because of this bureaucratic mix-up," Howard Gilman said yesterday in a telephone interview.