Upcoming Audit Work

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service uses the expense purchase card to pay for day-to-day operational needs that cannot be satisfied through priority sources such as in-house excess material or from national or area contracts and ordering agreements. Postal Inspection Service employees with purchase card local buying authority must follow policies and procedures and obtain proper approval to ensure purchases are for official Postal Service business. Our objective is to assess the Postal Inspection Service’s expense purchase card use. 

The Postal Service has been transporting live, day-old chicks since 1918. As the only shipper that accepts day-old chicks, the Postal Service provides an essential service for hatcheries, farmers, and backyard hobbyists. Last year, the Postal Service handled over 40-million-day-old chicks. The Postal Service requires mailers of live animals to comply with set guidelines to ensure safe, effective, and efficient transportation. In turn, the Postal Service prioritizes them through their processing and logistic networks. This audit will assess the effectiveness of the Postal Service’s procedures for acceptance, handling, and delivery of day-old chicks.

Over the past 20 years, the Postal Service has recorded net losses in 18 of the past 20 years, however they have maintained sufficient cash to continue operations and perform their mandated service. This white paper will examine the historical events, legislative enactments and operational performance that have shaped the Postal Service’s financial outcomes over the last two decades. Through appropriations from Congress, issuing debt, raising prices, and leaving future retirement benefits unfunded, the Postal Service has remained solvent and mitigated the challenges associated with the Universal Service Obligation (USO) and the trend of customers shifting to digital communication.

The U.S. Postal Service is redesigning its surface transportation network to reduce costs by moving more mail volume in fewer “middle mile” trips. To achieve this, the Postal Service implemented Regional Transfer Hubs (RTHs) where mail volume is consolidated before dispatch to the network and incoming volume is sorted for regional distribution. RTHs enable the Postal Service to increase trailer utilization, a measurement of how full trailers are, reducing the number of trips needed to move mail in the network.
Our objective is to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the Postal Service's Regional Transfer Hub initiative.

The Postal Service relies on major mailers and consolidators who generate approximately $15.9 billion of the Postal Service’s revenue through marketing and other large scale mailings. Major mailers rely on PostalOne!, a complex system designed for business mailers that interfaces with 45 other Postal Service systems. PostalOne! allows business customers to begin the process of entering mail and allows for electronic access, documentation, business mail management, and payment. It is an internal and external facing site that provides automated scheduling services for drop shipment mailings, electronic documentation, postage statements, simplified mail acceptance, and verification and payment processes. The objective of this audit is to determine whether the Postal Service appropriately implemented and communicated changes to PostalOne!.