In a letter last week to Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) expressed his “great concern about the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General (OIG) audit report finding that the US Postal Service has been inaccurately reporting delayed mail across a number of facilities, directly impacting mail service for millions of customers.”
The OIG estimated that during the year ended Feb. 28, “mail processing facilities underreported late arriving mail by about 2 billion mailpieces” — that’s billion with a “b.”
Furthermore, another OIG investigation substantiated allegations of “time manipulation and inaccurate reporting of delayed mail.”
The Postal Service took strong exception to both reports, saying late arriving mail to facilities does not mean delayed delivery to customers and noting the time manipulation allegations involved only four people.
During the investigation that followed an inquiry from Tester, Christopher P. Cherry, a deputy assistant inspector general, said in a letter to the senator: “Four employees admitted to failing to report delayed mail. We learned that parcels were scanned as undeliverable to stop the clock. One of the four employees admitted to swiping employees’ time cards and manipulating … data at the direction of Postal Service management. Postal Service management denied directing clerks to scan the PO Box section barcode early.”
Tester was emphatic that those who engaged in manipulation or false reports should be sacked.
“To be clear,” he told Brennan, “any employee who deliberately delayed mail delivery or who knowingly misreported mail delivery should be terminated for violating the trust of America’s hardworking taxpayers and postal ratepayers.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/09/26/probe-estimates-billions-of-delayed-mail-pieces-postal-service-acknowledges-some-coverups/?utm_term=.468a278de331