The OIG issues more than 100 audit reports every year, but have you ever wondered what goes into an audit? In March, we released our audit report examining the new relief supervisor position and its impact on the Postal Service workforce. Let’s follow along the audit process with Dana and Scott, two of our auditors, both with 18 years of experience, who are located in the OIG’s Warrendale, PA, office. 

September, Survey Phase: Dana and two other members of the audit team meet on Monday at the office to drive to Buffalo, NY, to interview relief supervisors and their management. Already, the team has examined Postal Service policies and workforce data about the new position and met to consider their audit objective and plan how to meet it. Buffalo was selected because it was one of the locations across the country with a relatively high number of relief supervisors. 

Bright and early, the next day, they’re at the Buffalo Processing and Distribution Center for the interviews. Despite a fire alarm in the middle of a key interview, they finish their work that day and continue that week to interview relief supervisors and management at Buffalo post offices as well. During the audit process, the survey phase is a key time to research and plan the audit work. The team likes to visit at least one district in the survey phase to get a view of what’s happening on the ground.

October, Fieldwork Phase: Scott and half the team head to Nashville, TN, while Dana and the other half travel to Columbus, OH. They’ll continue their interviews with relief supervisors and their managers at these locations. While on location, the two halves of the team and their OIG leadership hold the fieldwork entrance conference via Zoom with Postal Service management. At this meeting, the auditors explain the project and their goals and ask USPS questions. The audit team has already conducted virtual meetings with many of the executives in charge of setting up the new relief supervisor position. In November, the team will also conduct interviews with USPS staff in Denver, but they’re done virtually or by phone to avoid disrupting plant operations at the height of the peak delivery season leading into the holidays.

December, In-process Review: Dana, Scott, and the rest of the team pull together their research, interview notes, and other observations from the site visits and meet with their OIG leadership to discuss how to structure the audit report and present their findings and also go over what work remains to be completed.

January, Message Agreement: Despite the blizzard blowing in Pennsylvania, Dana, Scott, and the team are hard at work meeting virtually with their leadership at the OIG to finalize their audit’s message in an outline and preliminary draft of what will become the audit report.

February to March, Reporting: Once the message is agreed, the audit team is focused on finalizing the draft report. Dana and Scott’s leadership reviews the draft, and a draft audit report is sent to the Postal Service for their comments. The team meets with USPS headquarters executives to discuss the report. The report also undergoes detailed fact checking to make sure the support for every statement and figure is included in the working papers. The last step is working with the OIG’s reporting teams: the editors, eFOIA (to examine the report for confidential information), and Communications (to format and prepare the final report for release). This final report is first issued to the Postal Service and then published on our website and Oversight.gov.

While not every audit experiences a fire alarm or a blizzard, they all generally follow this path, ending in reports that provide recommendations that have a significant impact on Postal Service and Postal Regulatory Commission operations. If you are interested in our audit work or possibly joining our Office of Audit, be sure to sign up here for notifications when new audit reports or job openings are posted. And drop a comment below if you have any questions about the audit process.