Upcoming Audit Work

In September 2019, the Postal Service adopted a new centralized hiring process. The goals of this initiative include shortening the time for extending job offers and getting applicants on the rolls, as well as eliminating interviews for most bargaining positions. The Human Resources Shared Service Center is the central processing center for these hiring activities, in coordination with district human resources personnel. Our objective is to assess the Postal Service’s hiring practices for bargaining employees (excluding peak season hires), specifically for mail handlers, clerks, city carriers, and rural carriers.
 

Under Delivering for America, the Postal Service is redesigning its legacy network to create a best-in-class mail and package processing network. Central to this redesign is the creation of approximately 60 Regional Processing and Distribution Centers (RPDC) to consolidate mail processing operations and create fewer points in their transportation networks. The Richmond, VA RPDC opened in August of 2023, centralizing outgoing mail and package processing in the greater Richmond metropolitan area. The objective of this audit is to assess the operational impacts related to the launch of this RPDC and identify successes, opportunities, and lessons learned.

The U.S. Postal Service conducts physical inventories of its capital assets primarily through the annual capital property review. Capital assets are items acquired through purchase, transfer, or donation with a service life of more than 1 year; are a stand-alone item of property throughout its useful life; unit cost is $10,000 or more; and depreciates in value. This review occurs every March where all capital assets are physically located and counted over a four-year cycle. Our objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of internal controls over the Postal Service’s annual capital property review at network and processing distribution centers. 

The Postal Service’s mission is to provide the nation with trusted and secure mail services. Mail theft can occur through various methods, such as the use of stolen and counterfeit keys to access collection boxes; residential mailbox theft; and robbery of mail carriers. We initiated this project’s survey phase on September 2, 2022. Based on that work, we will assess the Postal Service’s response to mail theft by reviewing mail theft complaints and cases for a sample of locations nationwide.

The Postal Service offers Business Reply Mail (BRM) service that enables qualified mailers to provide a recipient with a convenient, prepaid method for replying to a mailing. BRM pieces can include postcards, letters, flats, parcels, or election ballots and can either be First-Class Mail® or Priority Mail®. Under BRM, the mailer, not the customer, pays the return postage. BRM is frequently used by a variety of mailers including researchers seeking survey responses, publishers soliciting subscriptions, businesses collecting receipts or documents from employees, or non-profit organizations seeking donations. Our objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Postal Service’s BRM operations.