USPS Office of Inspector General

Nearly a decade since its rollout, the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) — the football-field sized sorting machines for flats mail — is still falling short of expectations. At its inception, stakeholders were optimistic FSS would improve productivity and reduce the U.S. Postal Service’s costs for handling flats mail.

Election season arrives like clockwork. Every four years, a general election. Every two years, a midterm election. The U.S. Postal Service plays a regular role in elections, with the delivery of both election mail and political mail. Election mail is a mailpiece that an authorized election official creates for voters participating in the election process, while political mail is mail used for political campaign purposes.

Nothing gets the attention of stakeholders like mail service issues. Late last year, our audit report on delayed mail generated headlines about inaccurately reported counts of delayed mail.

In our latest audit report on the topic, we find the U.S. Postal Service accurately reported delayed mail in the Great Lakes Area, an important step in meeting USPS service standards.