USPS issued smartphones to over 23,000 employees at a cost of about $13 million in 2022. Image: LesPalenik/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn inspector general report on smartphones issued to Postal Service employees raises familiar themes from prior reports from IGs of other agencies regarding insufficient controls including failure to assure that phones are disconnected when an employee leaves the agency.
The Postal Service has issued the phones to more than 23,000 employees, totaling more than 25,000 phones from nine different carriers at a cost of about $13 million in 2022, the report said. However, it added that the UPS did not maintain an accurate and current inventory, or verify that only supported smartphones were in use—about 5 percent of phones in use were no longer supported by the manufacturers, including some for more than three years.
Further, lack of oversight of contractor performance resulted in nearly $600,000 in excess payments and failure to certify that services for nearly 4,000 employees who separated—in one case for nearly a year—had been deactivated resulted in above $300,000 more, it said.
“These issues occurred because the Postal Service did not follow a standardized process for inventory and utilization reviews, and responsibilities for contract and lifecycle reviews were incomplete or ignored due to the transfer of duties resulting from its recent reorganization” of its CIO office, it said.
Postal management agreed with the IG’s recommendations to address those issues.
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