When USPS management and employees know there is a strong OIG USPS, they are less likely to cut corners or push the envelope where they should not. Image: Karolis Kavolelis/Shutterstock.com
By: Paul SteidlerWith the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) going through a period of unprecedented, historic operational change while also facing skyrocketing crime from outsiders and bad apples within its ranks, it is imperative to strengthen USPS’s Office of Inspector General (OIG USPS).
USPS OIG audits USPS programs to identify savings, inefficiencies, and ways they can work better. It also investigates and unearths crimes within USPS, including internal mail theft, narcotics trafficking, health care fraud, contract fraud, and financial fraud (e.g., embezzlement).
Indeed, USPS has a perfect storm of issues and challenges that provide a textbook case regarding the need for a strong and vigorous OIG USPS.
As stated in its March 2021 10-year Delivering for America strategic plan, USPS is pursuing “a new business model and a reorientation of the Postal Service’s management, network, and processes.” In May 2022, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy discussed a portion of the change, saying “This is a massive effort that will touch almost 500 network mail processing locations, 10,000 delivery units, 1,000 transfer hubs, and almost 100,000 carrier routes.”
During U.S. Senate testimony on September 7, Postal Regulatory Commissioner Robert Taub said, “If one listens to some of the Postal Service’s information on this, it may be the most fundamental change to the network since Ben Franklin was postmaster general.” Vigorous oversight in such a climate is essential.
Simultaneously, USPS has been hit hard by the country’s spiraling crime wave. On May 12, it announced a series of steps to crack down on mail theft, enhance employee safety, and strengthen consumer protections.
With any organization as large as USPS, which has 700,000 employees, some will inevitably be involved in criminal activity. There have been numerous disturbing arrests of postal workers in 2023, including for trafficking narcotics.
When it comes to auditing and arresting criminals, OIG USPS has consistently punched above its weight.
In Fiscal Year 2022, for example, OIG USPS received an appropriation of $262 million, from which it returned nearly six times this amount. This comprised $1 billion in improvements identified through audits and $474 from criminal investigations that entailed fines, cost avoidances, financial recoveries, and restitutions, over half of which was returned directly to USPS.
Furthermore, there is the deterrence factor. When USPS management and employees know there is a strong OIG USPS, they are less likely to cut corners or push the envelope where they should not.
Year after year, OIG USPS makes similarly impressive returns. And year after year, going back more than a decade, its budget has stayed relatively flat or faced only modest adjustments. Furthermore, OIG USPS has less than one employee for every 600 at USPS, and its budget is less than 0.4 percent of USPS’s annual revenues.
For Fiscal Year 2024, President Biden’s budget has requested $290.6 million for OIG USPS, an increase of $19.6 million or 7.2 percent. That is exceedingly modest, and Congress should hike it more.
Much of the proposed $19.6 million increase comes from a federally mandated cost-of-living allowance pay increase for staff. Furthermore, unlike in years past, OIG USPS is no longer able to spend funds it receives from forfeitures, which accounted for $33 million over a ten-year period.
It is also notable that Congressional funding for OIG USPS does not come from general tax revenues, nor the U.S. Treasury. Rather, USPS provides these funds to OIG USPS after Congress and the President determine the amount. Given the large amount that OIG USPS saves and helps replenish to USPS, the fact it does so without taxpayer funds is another compelling reason to boost its budget significantly.
Folks across the political spectrum should support higher OIG USPS funding. The benefits from cost savings, better law enforcement, and providing auditing oversight so USPS functions as Congress intended is a win for all, regardless of partisanship or ideology.
About the Author: Paul Steidler is a Senior Fellow with the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank based in Arlington, Virginia.
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