Upcoming Audit Work

The Postal Service categorizes employees into two primary groups: career and pre-career. Career employees receive a full range of benefits while pre-career employees do not yet have permanent status and do not receive full employee benefits.

As mentioned in its 10-Year Delivering For America Plan (DFA), the Postal Service began to increase the number of employees converted from pre-career to career positions. However, this increased compensation costs for the Postal Service. Our objective is to assess the financial and service-related impacts of the Postal Service's employee composition.

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) amended portions of Title 39 U.S.C. regarding maximum compensation limits for employees, executives, and officers. The Postal Service has limited ability to pay specific executives over the maximum amount allowed by the executive schedule, either through bonuses or additional pay authority. Our objective is to determine whether the U.S. Postal Service complied with applicable maximum total compensation provisions of the Postal Accountability Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) and related Postal Service policies and guidelines for calendar year (CY) 2025.

In fiscal year 2025, the Postal Service spent over $15 billion through contracts to buy a wide variety of products and services, ranging from delivery vehicles to common office supplies. Contracts specify the business requirements, price, payment arrangement, and other terms and conditions for procurement. Given the amount of funds spent and the missions these contracts support, it is critical that Postal Service procurement leaders manage their specific portfolios effectively. The objective of our audit is to evaluate the Postal Service’s oversight of its contracts, including pre-award and post-award processes.

The Delivering for America (DFA) plan, released in 2021, outlines the Postal Service’s 10-year strategy to improve service and achieve financial sustainability. In 2024, DFA 2.0 provided an updated blueprint for its path forward. Since the release of the DFA plan, the Office of Inspector General has integrated independent and objective reviews of its implementation into our work. This is the fourth in our series of DFA oversight reports. Our objective is to evaluate how the Postal Service’s Delivering for America (DFA) plan has evolved since implementation.  

In 2017, the Postal Service launched the Automated Package Verification (APV) system to detect underpaid postage automatically for PC Postage customers. APV checks shippers' entries against actual weights and dimensions, charging additional postage or refunding overpayments. In 2022, the Postal Service integrated APV into the USPS Ship platform. When discrepancies are found, the Postal Service invoices for additional postage or issues refunds. Our objective is to evaluate effectiveness of the Postal Service’s automated solutions to verify package attributes and charges. Contact us if you have any information or input that might be beneficial to the auditors on this topic.