Faulty refund process may cost USPS USD 500,000
The Office of the inspector general’s audit of the US Postal Service’s refund process in the Capital Metro area (comprising Washington, Baltimore, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia) found that retail associates and customer service supervisors are not always properly processing and recording refunds of stamps, fees, retail services and Express Mail services.
As a result, the sites visited in the Capital Metro area have incurred USD 180,619 in unsupported, questioned costs and USD 531,784 in assets at risk for refunds of stamps, fees, retail services and Express Mail services.
The inspector general audited four sites in the Capital Metro area. However, the location of the sites is not public information, according to Deborah Yackley, media relations representative at the USPS.
To audit the sites, the office of the inspector general reviewed applicable policies and procedures in regard to the verification, approval and disbursement of refunds from January 2006 to July 2007. It obtained, reviewed and analyzed data from the point-of-service system, Retail Data Mart and Accounting Data Mart for the area districts under review to determine the amount of refunds processed.
The audit found that retail associates do not always complete refund documentation, enter the proper account identifier codes or provide signatures on Postal Service Forms 1412 in the Daily Financial Report.
The USPS establishes policies and procedures to process refunds. It groups all refund requests into categories and assigns accounting codes to facilitate the refund process. These accounting codes allow it to effectively track revenues by customer type and help attribute refunds to the correct postage category.
The USPS will add verification procedures to the Post Office Quarterly Self-Audit Checklist for customer service supervisors, managers and postmasters. It reissued its policy memo to all district managers and added the responsibility for review of PS 1412 supporting documentation at the end of the day to the Post Office Quarterly Self Checklist for customer service supervisors, managers and postmasters.
The inspector general’s office said the actions should address the issues identified in the findings.
