Refund Permit Postage – Memphis, TN, Main Office Window Service
Background
The Memphis Main Office Window Service is in the Tennessee District of the Eastern Area. Business Reply Mail (BRM) is a service provided by the Postal Service that enables a permit holder to provide a recipient a prepaid method for replying to a mailing. Permit holders request refunds when postage has been applied to the prepaid mailing. To obtain a refund, permit holders 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 permit holder’s refund amount. The postage-affixed BRM refunds are reported in account identification code (AIC) 528, Refund Permit Postage and Fees Amount.
OIG data analytics identified that the Memphis Main Office Window Service had $68,892 recorded to AIC 528 from April 1 to June 30, 2019. Permit-postage refunds for the Memphis Main Office Window Service accounted for 93 percent of all refunds processed under AIC 528 within the Tennessee District for the same timeframe. Further, the permit-postage refunds for the Memphis Main Office Window Service were the third highest in the nation for the scope period.
Objective
The objective of this audit was to determine whether permit-postage refunds were valid, properly supported, and processed at the Memphis, TN, Main Office Window Service.