US Postal Service security still lacking, government report finds

Thousands of keys are missing from former employees at one postal site, and gates are unlocked at others, the government said Tuesday in a report detailing security gaps at major mail centers.

A report by the Government Accountability Office said efforts have been made to make postal facilities more secure, but security still lags at many of the nation’s 373 core mail centers. The U.S. Postal Service agreed with the report and promised to refocus its efforts.

“We still have room for improvement at many facilities,” the Postal Service’s chief operating officer, Patrick Donahoe, wrote to the GAO after receiving the agency’s report.

Investigators with the GAO visited 13 core facilities and found problems ranging from open entry gates to employees not wearing badges. Core sites include processing and distribution centers, bulk mail centers and operations at airports.

At one site, access cards and identification for thousands of former employees had not been returned or deactivated, the report said. Investigators were able to enter restricted areas at three sites by walking through open gates, following employees through locked entryways and going through unattended areas.

Postal inspectors, charged with annually measuring security at facilities, have found similar problems. Of 153 core facilities surveyed this year, 76 failed to account for keys to vehicles or the sites. Employees at 52 locations did not wear identification badges and registered mail or stamps were left unsecured at 37 facilities.

Investigators also looked at these annual surveys and compared results from 2001 to 2004. But only 119 sites had complete reports for the time in question, meaning a more thorough study could not be done. The Postal Service pledged to shore up its database of survey results and measure risks based on crime data from the 2000 Census.

Postal sites are “tempting targets for theft and other criminal acts,” the GAO said. In fiscal 2001, the Postal Service lost about $6.3 million in cash and checks to robberies, internal theft and mishandling.

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On the Net:

Government Accountability Office: http://www.gao.gov/