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Pushing the Envelope Blog

Dotting the I’s and Crossing the T’s

Date: 01/24/22 | Category: Finances: Cost & Revenue

You’ve maybe heard a lot lately about the U.S. Postal Service’s efforts to buy new delivery vehicles and are curious about how many they will purchase. Do you wonder how USPS makes these and other major purchases? It turns out the Postal Service has its own internal contracting policies and procedures, called Supplying Principles and Practices (SP&P).

While the OIG doesn’t audit every contract to look for fraud, waste, and abuse, we do look at some, especially contracts as large and unique as the one for Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDVs) that was awarded in February 2021. As you can read in our recent report, our audit team researched other federal agencies to determine common practices and requirements used in large acquisition contracts, comparing them to the NGDV contract.

We found, overall, the Postal Service did a good job of mitigating fraud, waste, and abuse by incorporating policies, special provisions and clauses, and special agreements into the NGDV contract. We did, however, identify opportunities where the contract could be strengthened. For instance, it could include language that requires contractors to self-report fraud. In addition, USPS could require the contractor to display fraud hotline posters throughout its facilities.

What steps does your company take to ensure it has good contracts?