Upcoming Audit Work

As part of its Delivering for America’s 10-year strategic plan, the U.S. Postal Service is allowing a higher percentage of mail volume to be transported by surface transportation rather than air transportation, which is less reliable and more costly. The Postal Service has a limited surface carrier base due to their contracting requirements and is obligated to maintain the safety of the mail and assets to preserve the public’s trust. Our objective is to assess the effectiveness of highway contract route safety controls and contract compliance and oversight.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) administers pension, health insurance, and life insurance benefits for federal agencies. Postal Service is responsible for withholdings and contributions reported in the Report of Withholdings and Contributions for Health Benefits, Life Insurance and Retirement; and the enrollment information reported on the Supplemental Semiannual Headcount Report. Our objective is to assist the OPM in assessing the reasonableness of retirement, health benefits, and life insurance withholdings and contributions as well as enrollment information submitted via the Semiannual Headcount Report by the Postal Service. This attestation engagement will apply agreed-upon procedures, which are the responsibility of OPM, from October 2022 through August 2023.

Billing determinants are spreadsheets that Postal Service employees manually produce to report volume and revenue for every Postal Service price within each class of market dominant mail. Volumes from the competitive billing determinants are an indirect input used to ensure the Postal Service does not set product prices below its price-floor. Our objective is to assess the Competitive Parcel Select billing determinant process. The scope of our audit will be for fiscal year FY2021 and FY 2022. The estimated report release date is August 2023.

The Selected Financial Activities and Accounting Records audit supports the Independent Public Accounting (IPA) firm’s integrated audits of the Postal Service’s financial statements and internal controls over financial reporting through re-performance of selected financial control tests and independent testing as agreed upon with the IPA. Our audit objectives are to determine whether the Postal Service: 

• Fairly stated accounting transactions in the general ledger and whether selected controls surrounding those transactions were designed and operating effectively. 
• Properly tested, documented, and reported its examination of selected key financial reporting controls at Headquarters and Accounting Service Centers.
   

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.