Upcoming Audit Work

As part of its Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service is redesigning its network of nearly 19,000 delivery units to reduce inefficient operations and costs. The Postal Service has identified key markets where it can aggregate several delivery units into fewer, larger Sorting and Delivery Centers (S&DCs) that are centrally located. As of November 2024, the Postal Service rolled out 83 S&DCs that encompassed 9,497 routes and expects to develop 36 more in 2025 that would encompass 3,313 routes. Our objective is to determine if the Postal Service evaluated and created routes accurately at the S&DCs. If not, estimate the cost impacts.

As part of their Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service is investing $40 billion for network modernization, based around Regional Processing and Distribution Centers (RPDCs), Local Processing Centers (LPCs), and Sorting and Distribution Centers (SDCs). Overall, the Postal Service will establish 60 RPDCs to consolidate mail processing operations and create fewer points in the processing and transportation networks. Each RPDC processes mail and packages originating in its service area and has one or more LPCs associated with it. This audit will focus on the network transformation and consolidation of operations at Indianapolis, IN RPDC.

The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, as amended, requires annual audits of the U. S. Postal Service’s (USPS) financial statements. As part of these audits, USPS guidelines state the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) annually audit the expenses and payment amounts paid to officers, or on their behalf, for travel and representation. 
USPS OIG is conducting an audit of the USPS’s fiscal year 2025 officers’ and executive directors’ travel and or representation expenses. The audit’s objective is to determine if USPS officers and executive directors followed the applicable policies and procedures for travel and or representation expenses.

This audit supports the Independent Public Accounting (IPA) firm's integrated audits of the Postal Service's financial statements and internal controls over financial reporting. We test and re-perform selected financial controls as agreed upon with the IPA. In addition, we also select and test additional controls to support our own year-end audit work. Our audit objectives are to determine whether 1) selected accounting transactions in the general ledger are fairly stated and whether selected key financial reporting controls surrounding those transactions were operating effectively and 2) selected key financial reporting controls were designed and operating effectively.

The Postal Inspection Service, an investigative agency within the Postal Service, reported that since 2020, there has been a major increase in the creation, sale, and use of counterfeit postage. Counterfeit postage labels are being sold on eCommerce platforms and websites at heavily discounted prices, and it is estimated that the Postal Service incurs monetary losses of $600 million per year as a result. The Postal Service, in collaboration with the Postal Inspection Service, works to prevent, detect, and respond to the use and sale of counterfeit postage and reduce monetary losses. Our objective is: To evaluate the Postal Service and Postal Inspection Service's efforts to address counterfeit postage.