BACKGROUND:

The U.S. Postal Service originally established 36 Delivering Results, Innovation, Value, and Efficiency (DRIVE) initiatives in fiscal year (FY) 2011 to improve business strategy. DRIVE aims to reduce the reported $20 billion gap between revenue and expenses by 2016 through data driven program and project management. The Postal Service updates the portfolio of drive initiatives annually and there were 24 DRIVE initiatives in FY 2013. DRIVE 6 was one of six human resource DRIVE initiatives.

The objective of DRIVE 6 was to increase employee availability through five separate projects. These projects aimed to reduce workers’ compensation costs by $80 million annually; return injured employees to work; and reduce accidents, reportable workplace injuries and illnesses, and reduce sick leave.

Our objective was to determine whether the DRIVE 6 initiative used established DRIVE project management processes.

WHAT THE OIG FOUND:

The DRIVE 6 initiative did not use established DRIVE project management processes. The five projects comprising the initiative consisted of operations already being accomplished outside of DRIVE. Further, the projects were characterized as over resourced or under ambitious, but this information was not shared with the Executive Leadership Team and did not appear on the executive level dashboard. These omissions occurred because there was no separation of duties between the DRIVE initiative lead and roadmap owner. The initiative lead establishes the impacts and milestones and reports progress on project goals. The roadmap owner is responsible for initiating and executing the project plans. These duties should be assumed by different individuals to ensure adequate separation of duties. We also noted that there was no independent internal audit process to oversee DRIVE management.

During our audit the Postal Service closed DRIVE 6 because the Executive Leadership Team decided a consolidated human resources initiative would be more effective than multiple initiatives.

WHAT THE OIG RECOMMENDED:

We recommended the director, Strategic Planning, establish a process to ensure DRIVE project management roles such as the initiative lead and roadmap owner are held by separate individuals. We also recommended management evaluate implementing regular audits and controls for each project at the project management level.