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Audit Reports

Sep
16
2015
Report Number:
FT-AR-15-010
Report Type:
Audit Reports
Category: Finance

Attestation Report - Independent Report on Employee Benefits, Withholdings, Contributions, and Supplemental Semiannual Headcount Reporting Submitted to the Office of Personnel Management

BACKGROUND

At the request of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Office of Inspector General, we performed procedures agreed upon by the chief financial officer and inspector general of the OPM. This attestation engagement is an annual requirement of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Our objectives were to help the OPM assess the reasonableness of U.S. Postal Service employee benefit withholdings, enrollment information, and Postal Service benefit contributions, and to confirm the Combined Federal Campaign (managed by the OPM), accounting codes and payroll data match OPM records.

WHAT THE OIG FOUND

We verified employee withholdings, Postal Service contributions, and enrollment information reported and transferred to the OPM for health benefits and retirement. However, we identified issues related to life insurance elections, semiannual health benefits reporting, and Combined Federal Campaign information. Specifically:

  • Life insurance elections for one of 25 employees could not be verified because a Life Insurance Election Form was not present in that employee’s electronic Official Personnel Folder.
  • The total health benefits withholdings and contributions and total number of enrollees reported to the OPM in March 2015 were correct. However, the reported allocation of where the Postal Service did and did not contribute to enrollees’ premiums was incorrect.
  • The Postal Service’s payroll system had a different campaign name or address than those provided by the OPM in three of 151 campaigns.
  • Employees’ campaign codes in the Postal Service’s payroll system did not match the OPM campaign code associated with the work location for 171 of 61,308 employees.

As a result of our engagement, the Postal Service took corrective action for each of these issues.

We were not engaged in, and did not perform, an audit, the objective of which would have been the expression of an opinion on the withholdings and contributions. Accordingly, we do not express such an opinion.

WHAT THE OIG RECOMMENDED

This report is provided for information only, and we offered no recommendations. Accordingly, no management action is required.