Refunds of Permit Postage – Washington, D.C., Main Office Window
Background
The Washington, D.C., Main Office Window (MOW) is located in the Capital District of the Atlantic Area.
Business Reply Mail (BRM) is a service provided by the Postal Service that enables a sender to provide a recipient with a convenient, prepaid method for replying to a mailing. Customers request refunds when postage has been applied to the prepaid mailing. To obtain a refund, customers must submit postage affixed BRM, and the required Postal Service (PS) Form 3533, Application for Refund of Fees, Products and Withdrawal of Customer Accounts. The Postal Service assesses fees to process the refunds and deducts them from the customer’s refund amount.
OIG data analytics identified Washington, D.C., MOW permit postage refunds totaling about $978,640 for fiscal year (FY) 2020, which is 98 percent of the district total and the highest in the nation. The office issued more BRM refunds compared to other post offices because companies located in other states purchased their BRM permits with a Washington, D.C., address. The refund total for this account is 46 percent of the unit’s year-end total revenue of about $2 million for Washington, D.C. MOW. In addition, we identified several months with little or no refund activity.
The objective of this audit was to determine whether postage affixed BRM refunds were properly issued, supported, and processed at the Washington, D.C., MOW.