Sometimes it can be confusing to keep track of who does what in this postal world. The U.S. Postal Service has a wide range of stakeholders, including a few entities with oversight responsibilities. We, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), are one of those entities.
The OIG, an independent agency within the Postal Service, maintains the integrity and accountability of America’s postal service, its revenue and assets, and its employees. Our mission is to help maintain confidence in the postal system and improve the Postal Service’s bottom line through independent audits, investigations, and research. Audits of postal programs and operations help to determine whether they are efficient and cost effective. Investigations help prevent and detect fraud, theft, and misconduct, and deter postal crimes. The OIG also conducts research to keep Postal Service Governors, Congress, Postal Service management, and other stakeholders informed of challenges and opportunities.
Every 6 months, as required by Congress, we publish a report of our work and activities for that period. We recently published our spring Semiannual Report to Congress, or the SARC as we affectionately call it. Our efforts focused on identifying ways to make the Postal Service more efficient, reduce its strategic and financial risk, and lower its cost of doing business. Among the reports featured in this semiannual report are audits on revenue protection and Sunday delivery of parcels; a management advisory on city carrier compensation costs; and white papers on a wide range of topics, including the Postal Service’s universal service obligation.
During this period, we issued 74 audit reports, management advisories, and white papers. We completed 1,955 investigations that led to 370 arrests and nearly $1.4 billion in fines, restitutions, and recoveries, $10.7 million of which was turned over to the Postal Service.
The report also carries extensive appendices chronicling our work in detail. We encourage you to review the report and get to know us better. We welcome your input as well.
Source: Who We Are and What We Do | Office of Inspector General