USPS: Improvement in business mail acceptance controls

Letter to the Editor – received from the United States Postal Service via email, February 11, 2011 Mr. Cartledge,

I read with interest your recent piece on the audit the US Postal Service Inspector General conducted on the operation of our Business Mail Entry Units (“Auditors Raise Concern Over USPS Bookkeeping“).

While the story accurately reflects some of the more critical elements of the IG’s report, I think it important to point out that the Postal Service made significant improvements in their compliance with financial controls over business mail acceptance in fiscal year 2010. These improvements contributed to a clean SOX opinion for the Postal Service in our first year of compliance with SOX. All of the areas where the OIG cited findings, were addressed by the end of the year and the Postal Service has put in place measures to ensure that these compliance rates are sustained in the future.

In January of 2010, extensive training was provided to acceptance employees that focused on key financial controls for the proper verification and acceptance of business mail. In total over 8,500 employees passed the training.

As we are continually looking to re-engineer acceptance systems and processes to automate and tighten financial controls, this training has been updated to reflect all system and process changes implemented over the past year. Job Aids and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) covering all aspects of the acceptance and verification process in our acceptance units are available to provide on the job guidance to our employees.

Financial teams conduct process audits at various acceptance sites nationwide to ensure we are complying with key financial controls and to ensure revenue is properly collected and recorded. Weekly webinars are held with acceptance employees to communicate the results of these audits. A written compliance advisory is published which highlights critical information relating to the acceptance and verification of business mail. These two mediums further demonstrate the importance of proper acceptance processes.

We believe significant improvement was made last year as it relates to compliance with financial controls in mail acceptance. In closing, as the USPS continues to move into an electronic and automated environment, we are consistently striving to improve our processes.

Sincerely,

Gerry McKiernan
Mgr. Media Relations