Federal Manager's Daily Report

The Postal Service IG has issued the latest in a series of warnings about declining conditions of postal facilities, stressing that problems extend beyond cosmetic issues to include safety and security concerns.

Auditors reviewed 51 facilities in the Eastern Area, finding that 32 had building safety and security issues, and the same number had potential OSHA violations.

Among the safety issues were that two facilities had received threats from customers that were not properly addressed. In one case, an employee was unable to lower the security window without entering the customer area. At another, an employee received a death threat from a customer and facility personnel allowed a contract driver to “sleep in the back room of the post office during his daily layover in order for the employee to feel secure”—which itself raised a security concern.

At two others, doors into employee work areas were kept unlocked and unmonitored, allowing the public access to those areas.

As in prior audits, the IG attributed the problems to “competing priorities” for funding.