Local Purchases and Payments – Marietta, OH, Post Office
Background
This report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of Local Purchases and Payments – Marietta, OH, Post Office. The Marietta Post Office is in the Ohio Valley District of the Eastern Area. This audit was designed to provide U.S. Postal Service management with timely information on potential financial control risks at Postal Service locations.
The Postal Service prefers to use eBuy2 to pay for goods and services. However, if a purchase cannot be satisfied through eBuy2, authorized postal employees may use the SmartPay2 credit card. Postal employees can use cash for emergency one-time expenses, not to exceed $25 and can use no-fee money orders for emergency one-time local expenses, not to exceed $1,000. In addition, local payments made to individuals, proprietorships, or corporations with cash or money orders must be reported for tax purposes.
Employees use Account Identifier Code (AIC) to record purchases or expenses associated with payment for non-custodial, custodial, and all miscellaneous services only. The OIG’s data analysis identified that the Marietta, OH, Post Office had local purchases totaling $13,281, or 54 percent, of all local purchases in the Ohio Valley District for the period of October 1, 2017, through May 31, 2018. It is unusual for one office to have such a high percentage of local purchases as it relates to other offices in the same district. In addition, the Marietta Post Office’s local purchases were $13,281 compared to $1,770 for same period in fiscal year 2017.
Our objective was to determine whether local purchases and payments were valid and properly supported at the Marietta, OH, Post Office.