OIG Report On USPS Health and Safety Program
OIG found in some locations that safety was not always a priority to management
Highlights of the USPS OIG audit:
Previously, the Postal Service, as a federal agency, was exempt from private sector provisions of the OSH Act. When PESEA became effective, the Postal Service became fully subject to the OSH Act. This gave OSHA jurisdiction over the Postal Service in matters relating to employee safety and health and required the Postal Service to comply with OSHA standards and regulations. If violations occur, OSHA may cite or fine the Postal Service or, in extreme cases, refer the agency for criminal prosecution. Read more
OIG Recommends Outsourcing USPS Custodial and Motor Vehicle Jobs
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) asks the OIG to review savings if USPS did not have to comply with McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA) of 1965.
WHY THE OIG DID THE AUDIT:
The report responds to a request from Representative Darrell E. Issa. Our objective was to review Postal Service’s market research to determine if potential savings could be realized if they did not have to comply with the SCA. In addition, we identified positions for which Postal Service labor rates exceeded the SCA rates and barriers to outsourcing those positions. Read more
OIG: USPS Had More Than 3.4 Billion Delayed Mailpieces During Fall 2010
…a 37 percent increase over the same period last year. We have referred three instances of intentional misreporting of delayed mail to the Office of Investigations over the past several years.
Mailers expressed concerns over the substantial amount of delayed Standard Mail® and Periodicals during the 2010 Fall Mailing Season.
Approximately 95 percent of this delayed mail was Standard Mail. This adversely impacted service and resulted in approximately $10.9 million in revenue at risk. Factors contributing to this condition included failure to adjust mail flow, sort plans, and staffing to meet operational changes, particularly when implementing consolidations and realignments. We identified a very small amount of stand-by time (or idle time) during this period; thus, it appears the vast majority of employees were engaged in processing mail. Contributing factors also included underestimating mail volumes, underutilizing machines, not consistently color-coding mail, and not accurately identifying and reporting delayed mail. We have referred three instances of intentional misreporting of delayed mail to the Office of Investigations over the past several years.
OIG Report: Postal Service Performance During the 2010 Fall Mailing Season (PDF)
OIG Report: USPS Could Save $Billions By Eliminating Door-To-Door Delivery
OIG: USPS does not require Congressional approval for this policy change. USPS could save $$Billions more by converting curbside delivery into centralized delivery.
USPS OIG Audit Report – Modes of Delivery (Report Number DR-AR-11-006)
Notwithstanding these limitations, the Postal Service should develop a comprehensive
strategic plan to aggressively move from existing door-to-door delivery to curbside
delivery, which could save more than $4.5 billion a year. Future strategies should also
evaluate savings opportunities associated with conversion of curbside to centralized
delivery — which could save the Postal Service an additional $5.1 billion — and
mandate centralized delivery for new delivery points.
This strategic plan would significantly reduce delivery costs and could be implemented
internally through policy changes. It would not require congressional approval, unlike
other significant cost-savings initiatives, such as moving from 6- to 5-day delivery. At the
same time, these changes would increase fairness and consistency of service to
customers, as curbside delivery would be the primary delivery mode.
OIG Audit Of USPS Web-Based Program Used For Closing Post Offices
Filed under: audits, oig, post offices, postal, postal news, usps
USPS OIG audit report of the web-based application, the Change Suspension Discontinuance Center (CSDC) program, used for the discontinuance of Postal Service-operated retail facilities. According to OIG: “The CSDC program’s discontinuance process follows applicable federal law and Postal Service policies. By law, the Postal Service cannot close small POs solely for operating at a deficit.” Read more
USPS Entry Exams Now Online
Filed under: audits, postal, postal news, usps, USPS News Link
NO PENCILS NEEDED
Paper-and-pencil selection tests for entry-level jobs, Maintenance, and new supervisors are a thing of the past. These tests now are taken online, initiated when applicants apply for jobs at eCareer.
To date, job applicants have completed more than 100,000 assessments online. Performance tests that cannot be computerized — including the initial road test and the automotive bench test — are scored online. In all, 99 percent of the Postal Service’s selection tests now are managed online.
Using an online system expedites the hiring process and lowers costs. Users get results almost immediately, and the time and expense for publishing and distributing test materials and results are significantly reduced. “Automating selection tests has saved USPS $7.2 million since May 2008,” says Deborah Giannoni-Jackson, vice president, Employee Resource Management.
Automating these tests also has been good for the environment. According to Mangala Gandhi, manager, Selection, Evaluation and Recognition, the 50,000 entry-level tests administered online have saved more than 1.7 million sheets of paper.
Related link:USPS Subcontracted Online Employee Training Program Causing Problems
OIG: USPS Could Have Saved $122 Million In FY 2009 By Using Lower Costs Employees To Deliver Mail
Postal Service could have avoided paying almost 7 million of the 28 million overtime hours for full-time city letter carriers
Our analysis identified that, during FY 2009, city delivery supervisors scheduled full-time city delivery carriers to use overtime hours to deliver the mail on city routes.
Management actually expended overtime hours at a cost of more than $282 million, rather than use available and lower-cost PTF and transitional straight-time workhours at a cost of about $160 million. Using the lower cost employees would have saved approximately $122 million (see Table 1).
City Delivery Workforce Planning
The Postal Service’s workforce planning for city letter carriers did not always optimize its resources by maximizing the use of available and lower-cost part-time and
transitional carriers to reduce overtime costs for delivering the mail. Based on workload trends, vacancies, absences, and mail volume, supervisors decide either to use
overtime with full-time carriers or staff routes with part-time or transitional city letter carriers to ensure mail is delivered on routes.
The U.S. Postal Service is delivering fewer pieces of mail to a growing number of addresses as new households and businesses are added to the delivery network each year. During the past 3 years, the Postal Service reduced its city letter carrier workforce and workload; however, financial losses continue to occur while salary and benefits will continue to increase. The Postal Service must achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency to accommodate this new growth while facing financial loss from declining mail volume.
Conclusion
The Postal Service’s workforce planning process for city letter carriers did not always optimize available resources. In fiscal year (FY) 2009, the Postal Service could have avoided paying almost 7 million of the 28 million overtime hours for full-time city letter carriers by maximizing available, lower cost carrier resources to deliver the mail.
City Delivery Workforce Planning
Delivery management often used full-time city delivery carriers in overtime status to deliver the mail when using lower cost part-time and transitional carriers would have been more economical. Based on workload trends, vacancies, absences, and mail volume, supervisors decide either to use overtime with full-time carriers or staff routes with part-time or transitional city letter carriers to ensure mail is delivered on routes.
Postal Service Headquarters and area officials have implemented initiatives aimed at improving delivery operation performance including reducing managers’ daily administrative burdens,1 implementing new staffing tools, and improving daily communication of office operations. Moreover, area officials have primarily focused on increasing route efficiency and reducing overall workhours. However, management has not fully developed an overall city delivery operations strategy that optimizes resources and focuses on the type of workhours used and the associated staff costs to deliver the mail on city routes. See Appendix B for our detailed analysis of this topic.
By not optimizing all city carrier staffing resources, the Postal Service unnecessarily incurred excess costs of over $153 million in FY 2008 and approximately $122 million in FY 2009. Additionally, operating costs of more than $275 million could be reduced over a 2 year period (FYs 2010 and 2011). See Appendix C for our monetary impact calculations.
We recommend the vice president, Delivery and Post Office Operations:
1. Collaborate with area management to develop and implement an overall city delivery operations strategy that optimizes the most cost-effective combination of full-time, part-time, and transitional city carrier resources to reduce overtime workhours and costs.
Read full OIG report in .pdf format.
OIG: USPS Noncompliant, Insufficiently Supported Contracts Totaled $218,940,344
Excerpts from a report issued by the USPS Office of Inspector General:
We also found that 24 of the 68 (or 35 percent) of the noncompetitive contracts we reviewed were not sufficiently supported per Postal Service policy. Policies contain
minimum requirements for noncompetitive justifications, market research, and endorsement and approval requirements. Compliance with these requirements is
essential to ensuring fair treatment of suppliers, adequate competition, and the best value to the Postal Service.
Our review included seven contractual actions identified in a recent investigation of a former Postal Service executive who exerted undue influence on the contracting
process in their negotiation and award, and four professional services contracts with description codes similar to the contracts identified during the investigation. None of
these 11 contracts met the minimum requirements for noncompetitive justification. Finally, we also evaluated contracts awarded noncompetitively to former Postal Service
employees. By matching Postal Service vendor file information to employee file information, we identified 2,788 contracts in the Contract Authoring Management
System with current and former Postal Service employees with separation dates dating back to August 31, 1991, and 359 of those were awarded to employees with separation
dates in the last 3 years (October 1, 2006, to September 30, 2009).
We focused our testing in this audit on contracts with former executives because the Postal Service has very specific requirements regarding these awards. We found 17
contracts that were awarded noncompetitively in the last 3 years to former Postal Service executives. We analyzed three of those and found that they were awarded for
“knowledge transfer” and other duties related closely to their former Postal Service position. None of the three contracts met the minimum requirements for noncompetitive
justification. We will review more broadly the propriety of Postal Service contracts with former employees and the control environment surrounding them in fiscal year (FY)
2011.
The noncompliant, insufficiently supported contracts totaled $218,940,344. These costs are questioned because their noncompetitive justifications do not contain all the
required elements and/or approvals/endorsements prescribed by Postal Service policy. These amounts are not necessarily actual losses incurred by the Postal Service. Also, because data used to support management decisions is incomplete and/or inaccurate and the existence of unethical appearances could result in negative publicity to the Postal Service, we are also reporting non-monetary impact for data integrity10 and goodwill/branding.11 See Appendix B for our detailed analysis of these topics and Appendix C for a discussion of the monetary and non-monetary impacts reported.
OIG: USPS Should Consider Eliminating 32 or More District,Area Offices
One option is to “Eliminate duplicative staff positions and better position area management to work
strategically with headquarters by relocating all area offices to headquarters.”
A recent audit report issued by the USPS Office of Inspector General:
Since 1992, the Postal Service’s workforce has decreased by almost 106,992
employees (13 percent); the cumulative total factor productivity has increased
approximately 11 percent; and mail processing automation has improved. By FY 2010,
mail volume is projected to be at the level it was in FY 1992. Since 1992, the Postal
Service’s field structure has also changed. The number of area offices has decreased
from 10 to eight and the number of district offices has decreased from 85 to 74.
However, a 2003 study for the President’s Commission on the Postal Service (“the
Commission”)4 suggested that, while the management structure was appropriately lean,
there was a real opportunity to continue to rationalize the network with regard to the
number of districts, post offices, and processing plants and this effort could enable a
reduction in the number of areas. Further, in 2007, the OIG recommended the Postal
Service develop a comprehensive workforce plan to assist with making decisions about
structuring and deploying its workforce.5
Conclusion
The Postal Service has significant opportunities to reduce costs by consolidating its field
structure. We identified two options the Postal Service should consider that would
reduce the number of area and district offices. Further, we identified a third option the
Postal Service should consider that would relocate area offices to headquarters. The
Postal Service should develop a comprehensive strategic plan that would guide future
field structure decisions and explore the viability of relocating area offices to
headquarters. At a minimum, this strategic plan would provide the Postal Service with a
method to evaluate and define an economic, efficient, and effective field structure to
oversee its universal service mission. The strategic plan would also provide the needed
foundation to develop a more flexible area and district field structure and workforce that
is responsive to changing demand. During the development of a comprehensive
strategic plan, fundamental issues such as the functional need for area and/or district
offices, right-sized staffing, operational impact, geographic distribution, and the ideal
location for area offices should be addressed.
Although the Postal Service recently consolidated one area and six district offices, we
identified three other options, done separately or in combination, to consolidate its field
structure further:
- Eliminate 14 offices by consolidating districts that have offices within 50 miles of
another district office.
- Eliminate four area and 32 district offices by consolidating those offices whose
workhours and mail volume are both below the mean mail volume and workhours.
- Eliminate duplicative staff positions and better position area management to work
strategically with headquarters by relocating all area offices to headquarters.
Implementing option 1, the most conservative of the options, closing district offices that
are within 50 miles of one another, the Postal Service can save approximately
$33.6 million annually or $289 million over 10 years. See Appendix C for monetary
impact. Option 2, closing area and districts that have less than the mean mail volume
and workhours, the Postal Service can save approximately $104 million annually or
$894 million over 10 years. We did not estimate the cost savings that could be realized for option 3 due to the many factors associated with such a move. However, we believe this option provides both overall cost savings and other non-financial benefits.
OIG: USPS Takes Average Of 2.2 Yrs. To Process Employees Ideas Instead of 7 Days
The following are excerpts from a USPS Office Of Inspector General review of the eIDEAS program. According to the USPS OIG, “When an idea is approved, management can award noncash and cash awards up to $10,000. The complainant and surveyed employees expressed concern about management’s commitment to the eIDEAS program.”
This management advisory presents the results of our review of the eIDEAS program
(Project Number 10YG023DA000). Our objective was to identify opportunities for the
U.S. Postal Service to enhance the timeliness of the eIDEAS process and transparency
of the resulting management actions. We conducted this self-initiated review based on a
hotline complaint. See Appendix A for additional information about this review.
The eIDEAS program is a web-based application that allows Postal Service employees
to submit ideas online or at one of the kiosks located in processing plants. The Postal
Service encourages employees to contribute constructive ideas to improve customer
satisfaction, generate revenue, increase productivity, and improve competitiveness.
Given the current financial condition of the Postal Service, it is appropriate to evaluate
the timeliness and transparency of the eIDEAS program to help management identify
those ideas with tangible benefits.
Conclusion
We found the eIDEAS program was not timely and management’s resulting actions
were not transparent. Specifically, while the eIDEAS program guide stipulates
evaluators assess ideas within 7 days of submission, we found level 1 evaluators took
an average of 2.2 years to process employee ideas, while level 2 and level 3
evaluators1 took an average of 1.1 years and .57 years, respectively, to process ideas.
Additionally, we noted that while the number of ideas submitted has grown by 26
percent from fiscal years (FY) 2004 to 2009, the number and value of awards has
declined by more than 88 percent. Although, we did not assess the quality of employee
suggestions received, this trend suggests further evaluation is warranted by
management to measure program success.
1 Level 1 idea evaluation is typically performed by the supervisor, postmaster, or manager to whom the submitter
reports. Level 2 evaluation is performed by the submitting organization’s executive (or designee). Level 3 evaluation
is performed by a representative of the headquarters functional area to which the idea most closely relates.
Our survey of employees who submitted ideas revealed that untimely evaluations,
insufficient management commitment and communication, and insufficient program
transparency were perceived as inhibitors to the program’s success. Program
management indicated that system limitations such as electronic reminders and
employee separations contributed to the backlog in open statuses. These challenges
prevent the full realization of the eIDEAS program’s purpose, which is to improve
customer satisfaction, generate revenue, increase productivity, and enhance
competitiveness.
In our benchmarking analysis, we found that federal and private entities have similar
idea programs. The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), the Department
of Defense (DOD), and the state of Washington evaluate and/or reward ideas within 20
to 45 days of submission. The DOD considers a benefit-to-award ratio when
implementing its ideas program. NASA, the DOD, and the state of Washington also use
a committee to evaluate ideas.
In regard to the hotline compliant, Postal Service Engineering developed a solution to
the Delivery Barcode Sorter (DBCS) problem with damaged stacker gates that was field
tested and repair kits were procured. Additionally, the Postal Service Maintenance
Technical Support Center (MTSC) is currently working on a maintenance bulletin to
inform field sites of the fix. The OIG hotline office will communicate with the complainant
as appropriate. See Appendix B for our detailed analysis of this topic.
We recommend the executive vice president, chief Human Resources officer, in
coordination with participating vice presidents:
1. Re-evaluate the Postal Service’s level of commitment to the eIDEAS program and
implement program modifications as appropriate.
2. Take action to improve the timeliness of the evaluation process and the
transparency of resulting management actions.
Archive: Postal Employee Idea Not Returned To Sender