Independent Report on Employee Benefits, Withholdings, and 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 (CFC) program accounting codes (managed by the OPM) and payroll data match OPM records.
WHAT THE OIG FOUND:
Although we identified no reportable issues with either retirement or health benefits data, we did identify issues related to life insurance, base salaries reporting, and CFC data. Specifically, our review of 35 employees’ life insurance elections found:
A basic life insurance premium was incorrectly calculated for one employee.
Life insurance elections could not be verified because Life Insurance Election Forms were not present in six employees’ Electronic Official Personnel Folders.
Life insurance elections documented in the payroll system were incorrect for five employees.
Also, employee aggregate base salaries reported to OPM did not always reflect the actual salaries paid. The OPM uses this data for financial management and actuarial purposes.
In addition, four of 164 CFCs in the Postal Service's payroll system had different campaign addresses than those provided by the OPM. Further, employees’ campaign codes in the payroll system did not match the OPM campaign code associated with the employee's work location for 186 of 65,882 employees.
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.