Expands the main menu
Pushing the Envelope Blog

Good Clean Contracting 

Date: 07/18/22 | Category: Finances: Cost & Revenue

The U.S. Postal Service spends billions of dollars every year on contracts for goods and services ranging from transporting mail across the country to mowing the grass at the local post office. 

The OIG works to ensure integrity in the contracting process in multiple ways. Our auditors regularly examine different types of contracts to ensure the Postal Service is following its contracting rules. For example, last November, the OIG released an audit report that examined how local facilities managed cleaning contracts and found problems such as sometimes not ensuring cleaners weren’t paid for days when they didn’t show up for work. 

Occasionally, problems are more serious, and fraud is involved. Our Office of Investigations has closed 92 contract fraud investigations in the last two years. This past June, as a result of an OIG investigation, a federal judge sentenced a subcontractor who committed wire fraud in connection with overcharging for maintenance and repair work at postal facilities. 

Everyone has a role to ensure integrity in the Postal Service contracting process, and we welcome your assistance. If you are aware of any waste, fraud, or misconduct involving Postal Service contracts, please tell us using the USPS OIG’s Hotline.  

Do you have any suggestions for how the Postal Service could improve its contracting processes? Let us know in the comments below. 

Leave a Comment

Your Name
Heather Burns
Jan 3, 2023
Your Comment
On January 3, 2023, around 1300 hours, I visited my local postal annex in Indio California to retrieve my mail form my PO Box and noticed the trash cans and counters were filled and covered with trash and debris to the point it was spilling onto the floors becoming a general nuisance and sanitary issue (I have pictures is needed). This is NOT the first time it has looked this way. I don't know if the postal employees are in charge of this or if there is a contractor, but either way the annex manager should have enough pride in their workspace and presentation to the public that this is not an issue. I expect for more from a governmental building and from the Post Office in general that this should not be an issue. On a side, the windows and walls need to be wiped down as well. I would also like to complain about the amount of homeless people that crowd the entry doors and/or hanging out in the vestibule PO boxes area creating an unsafe or weary environment. I would suggest a possible security guard for a time being to deter those actions and move them to the sidewalk. Please step this annex/post office up. Provide the funding needed to increase staff, lighting and janitorial/security services. Thank you.
P.S.: Night and day difference from the annex in La Quinta off of Corporate Drive one city over.
Your Name
Gary Quisenberry
Oct 21, 2022
Your Comment
My post office is Troutville, VA 24175. The overall appearance outside is not good. The landscaping is half done, windows are dirty and theres debris and small pieces of paper on floor of entry way. The people are great, service is good but the general appearance of the facility is not good.
Your Name
Mary Swankler
Aug 17, 2022
Your Comment
The lobby at our Madison Pa15663 Post office is a disgrace to the postal authority it’s filthy. The person running the facility it seems lax in the duties of making sure mail is placed in the correct box upon speaking with others it’s happening to their mail as well
Your Name
Leonard Miller
Aug 2, 2022
Your Comment
I recently visited the North Palm Beach Office at 643 US Hy 1, 33408.FL
As an American, I am sad to see the filth of the building inside and outside. The parking area and planting areas are NOT taken care of at all! What a disgrace to America, the Town of North Palm Beach, FL.
It is very apparent that NO ONE cares! I will never visit that facility again ever! VERY SD.....
Your Name
Kim
Jul 20, 2022
Your Comment
Our postal delivery facility has no AC. It has been over 100 degrees outside and the building is over 85. How can we get management to fix this issue?
  
Your Name
OIG Moderator
Jul 27, 2022
Your Comment
Thank you for your feedback. This has been forwarded to our Hotline. We also have an upcoming audit on COVID-19 Test Kits Distribution. Please visit our upcoming audits page to learn more!
     
Your Name
Joshua D Burns
Jan 3, 2023
Your Comment
No one gives a crud about your political wonkiness about Covid-19, WE want clean professional postal offices and annexes! Paint them, fix them, provide for better lighting, empty the trash cans more than once a day and get rid of the homeless panhandling! USPS has gotten super laxed about their public image, that needs to change.