Upcoming Audit Work

The U.S. Postal Service has specific policies and procedures on the proper acceptance, processing, delivery, and recording of Election and Political Mail. Election Mail is any mailpiece that an authorized election official creates for voters participating in the election process and includes ballots and voter registration materials. Political Mail is any mailpiece created by a registered political candidate, a campaign committee, or a committee of a political party for political campaign purposes. Our objective is to evaluate the U.S. Postal Service’s readiness for timely processing and delivery of Election and Political Mail for the 2024 general election.

The Delivering for America plan has put at the forefront the need for new equipment that has the capacity to allow for the consolidation of package processing in new modernized facilities. A key component of this is the acquisition and deployment of the Matrix Regional Sorter (MaRS). The MaRS is a new package processing machine designed to simultaneously process both outgoing and incoming packages at a higher throughput, and provide increased efficiency within a smaller operational footprint, compared to existing machines. The objective of this audit is to evaluate the planning, deployment, and initial performance of the MaRS.

Every year, Postal Service employees risk illness and injury while working in hot or cold conditions. Employees exposed to extreme heat or work in hot environments may be at risk of heat stress. Extreme cold temperatures can lower the skin temperature and eventually the internal body temperature. Our objective is to assess the Postal Service’s safety programs, policies, and procedures for extreme hot and cold temperatures, and applicable controls for training records.

Under its Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service is redesigning its legacy network to create a best-in-class mail and package processing network. Central to this redesign is creating approximately 60 Regional Processing and Distribution Centers (RP&DC) to consolidate mail processing operations and create fewer points in their transportation networks. The Atlanta, GA, RP&DC opened in February of 2024, centralizing outgoing mail and package processing for the majority of Georgia and parts of eastern South Carolina. The objective of this audit is to assess the operational impacts related to the launch of this RP&DC and identify successes, opportunities, and lessons learned.

The Postal Service Reorganization Act of 1970, as amended, requires annual audits of the United States Postal Service's financial statements. As part of these audits, the Postal Service adopted policies and procedures that required annual audits of officers' travel and representation expenses. Our objective is to determine whether Postal Service officers complied with Postal Service policies and procedures regarding travel and representation expense reimbursements.