Keeping the Postal Service Looking Its Best

Jun 20 2022
OIG Blog Category: Post Offices & Retail Network 15 Comments

Post offices and delivery units are the Postal Service’s front door to the public. People visit them to buy stamps, drop off mail, or pick up a package. They’re also the workplace for postmasters, clerks, and carriers. That’s why it’s so important they are clean, safe, and in good condition.

The OIG regularly audits property conditions at retail and delivery units. On June 2, we released what we call a capping report. The capping report summarizes our findings from 16 property condition audits conducted in fiscal years 2020 and 2021. These reviews uncovered hundreds of issues at 46 facilities:

  • Maintenance and appearance problems including unclean lobbies with dirty or damaged fixtures and walls needing paint or repair;
  • Health and safety problems such as plumbing and electrical issues and tripping hazards; and
  • Security issues such as unlocked vehicles, insecure doors, and inoperable security cameras.

As part of the capping report, we took a second look at some of the facilities where we found the most egregious problems as well as two new facilities to see if the Postal Service was doing better at keeping its facilities in good condition.

Unfortunately, while the Postal Service fixed problems found in the initial visits, management didn’t ensure that facilities continued to be well maintained. Our auditors identified new issues at all of the revisited facilities as well as at the two new facilities. The same sorts of problems kept cropping up again.

The OIG found the problems continued to occur because the Postal Service does not have a standardized process to assess whether employees at retail and delivery units are maintaining facility standards, and we recommended the Postal Service implement one. The Postal Service agreed with the recommendation.

How do you think the Postal Service can take better care of its facilities? Could your local post office use a good cleaning or some maintenance?

Comments (15)

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  • anon

    The Darby, PA Post Office is in disgraceful condition. The front door sidelights are rusting out of their frames, the front steps are crumbling, the railings are rusting and have become disengaged from the steps. These are only a few of its problems. Please send a review team ASAP!

    Aug 06, 2022
  • anon

    Most of all post office‘s need updating on the face and in the lobbies they also need new up-to-date wireless technology for serving customers the post office should increase all box sections to be able to accommodate every person in town and county this should be the only free form of delivery would be PO Box that would save them billions people have to go get their groceries anyway and get gas in their car so what is it to stop by the local post office and pick up their mail

    Aug 01, 2022
  • anon

    Another change idea I had to make the post office better is offer PO boxes to any person who wants to give up street delivery or rule delivery as many people would take this due to better security more convenience of getting their mail and being able to get it at a specific time this would save the post office money As less personnel Less vehicles …

    Aug 01, 2022
  • anon

    Yes I think the post office needs a facelift I think they need to put in many more PO boxes and get rid of the mail carriers. The only thing that guy driving around town should be delivering is packages! That that would save the post office billions and being is they can’t hire from all the news stories they should eliminate routes immediately.

    Jul 29, 2022
  • anon

    This area could use improvement on the customer facing side and from the inside employee facing. Taking maintenance more serious and using cleaning equipment, buffers, and good old elbow grease would help.

    Jul 27, 2022
  • anon

    Thank you all for you comments. The USPS OIG will consider your feedback as we plan our future work in these areas.

    Jul 06, 2022
  • anon

    My local post office does not have any seating and sometimes the wait for counter service can be long. I see old folks trying to manage the wait with large packages. Post offices need to be more friendly for our seniors and disabled people.

    Jul 15, 2022
  • anon

    My post office definitely could use some TLC. The interior is lowly lit and while the floors are clean you can tell the fixtures are dated and there is evidence of where counters were ripped out to put chairs (for an unknown reason). I would recommend that the post office look into a pay for performance contract for it's sites that have a weekly checklist of all cleaning / maintenance functions to be performed. This would then need to be signed off by either a supervisor or the postmaster of the site and submitted to a central repository for record keeping. Further there needs to be a work-order page that all employees can submit a work order, work orders for broken items should be auto-approved up to a certain dollar threshold. After that work orders would need to be reviewed by management and concurrence or non-concurrence must be followed with a strong justification. All work order items would then go to district to monitor for completion status. Finally district representatives should be making an effort to walk all the post offices in their AOR once a month. There should be a comprehensive checklist that should closely align to the cleaning/maintenance checklist and if there are discrepancies then the person signing off on that checklist would be engaged to figure out why and, if necessary, perform corrective counseling. Finally there should be a USPS wide database of post-offices and their last rennovation date. That should be used for planning/budgeting purposes to establish a normal rennovation cycle (IE: once every 5 years)

    Jun 29, 2022
  • anon

    There are homeless people around the FOY PO in DTLos Angeles. Seniors are scared to go. The lobby smells weed and needs repainting. Thank you.

    Jun 24, 2022
  • anon

    The Lodi CA 95240 needs an audit. The Postal grounds are horrendous--the lawn is dead with only weeds growing. The hedge has died, the two planters are filled with dead plants. I've contacted the local office and the District office several times to no avail. I worked at this office for 22 years--it is an embarrassment and it should be the jewel of the town l. It's an historic building with valley oak trees surrounding it. Please do something!

    Jun 22, 2022
  • anon

    This is a joke, right? Since the custodians switched to the TL-5 version of the MS-47, the plants are filthy. Management says that it's "clean dirt".

    Jun 22, 2022
  • anon

    My local post offices (Hunting Park, Olney and Castor in Phila) look like they are about to close. They are dark, dreary, dirty and have no forms available for the public to use (i.e. certified, express labels, etc). They have no stamp selection (one station had only one available), and no glassine envelopes to house the purhased stamps.

    Jun 22, 2022
  • anon

    Our post office in Canton, TX is well maintained, neat and supplies are always available. Employees that I deal with are friendly, knowledgeable, and try to help. The only door that is open at night is the main entrance so people with P.O. Boxes can pick up their mail. We have a great post office.

    Jun 21, 2022
  • anon

    Contract with a cleaning service and a repair service to do the painting and other things it needs

    Jun 21, 2022
  • anon

    Good luck

    Jun 21, 2022

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