Mitigating Internal Mail Theft
Background
The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide the nation with trusted, safe, and secure mail services. As the Postal Service provides mail service to almost 167 million addresses six days a week as part of its universal service obligation, mail can be subject to theft, including internal theft. Internal mail theft includes the theft, destruction, or delay of mail and packages by postal employees.
What We Did
Our objective was to assess the Postal Service’s efforts to prevent and detect internal mail theft in mail processing facilities. For this audit, we judgmentally selected a sample of 12 mail processing facilities nationwide based on internal mail theft investigative cases and U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) site observations. Additionally, we reviewed Postal Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service processes, procedures, equipment, and other efforts in place that could detect or prevent internal mail theft.
What We Found
The Postal Service has some processes, procedures, and equipment in place to deter internal mail theft. However, internal mail theft still occurred in processing facilities nationwide due to a lack of a nationwide policy restricting personal belongings on the workroom floor, elevated supervisor and manager vacancy rates, and no dedicated periodic mail theft awareness employee training. Additionally, processing facilities nationwide are outfitted with cameras to monitor workroom floors, but some cameras were not operational due to failures with switches, servers, or cables. The Postal Inspection Service does not have a documented plan or guidance to monitor the operational status of the cameras.
Recommendations and Management’s Comments
We made four recommendations to address issues identified in the report. Postal Service management agreed with one recommendation, partially agreed with two recommendations and disagreed with one. Management’s comments and our evaluation are at the end of each finding and recommendation. The OIG considers management’s comments responsive to recommendations 1-3 as corrective actions should resolve the issues identified in the report. We will work with management on the other recommendation during the audit resolution process.