Upcoming Audit Work

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 Portland, OR RPDC opened in February 2024, centralizing outgoing mail and package processing in the greater Portland 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.

Postal facilities are used to process a variety of market dominant and competitive letter, Flat, and parcel mail products. Some of these facilities are used to process only parcel mail products. The Postal Service uses methodologies established by the Postal Regulatory Commission to determine its attributable and fixed costs, which are also referred to as institutional costs. Our objective is to assess the Postal Service's processes for tracking and attributing costs for parcel-only processing facilities. The scope of our audit is for fiscal years 2019 through 2024. The estimated report release date is September 2024.

The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 required the Postal Service develop its own public, interactive, service performance dashboard that presents data on service performance, FY Targets, and average days to deliver. The Postal Service uses its internal measurement system, the Service Performance Measurement, to track service performance and populate the dashboard. The data used to measure service performance is collected and scanned at three key points:

1. Collections/Acceptance - when mail enters the mail stream.
2. Processing - when mail is processed. 
3. Delivery - when mail is delivered. 

Our objective is to assess the accuracy and reliability of Postal Service’s reported service performance.
 

This audit is to review the Postal Service's processes in place to manage risks associated with legacy systems, and to determine if those processes are being implemented.

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide the nation with trusted, safe, and secure mail services. As the Postal Service provides mail service to almost 153 million customers six days a week, mail theft is on the rise across the nation. Mail theft can occur through various methods: carrier robberies, using stolen or counterfeit universal keys—called arrow keys—to access collection boxes, and fishing or breaking into collection boxes with force. Our objective is to assess the Postal Service’s actions taken to mitigate and respond to mail theft in Queens, NY.