Postal Service

GAO reviewed the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) implementation of the National Bulk-Rate Mail Verification Program to determine whether: (1) bulk-mail clerks are complying with program guidelines; (2) verification of bulk-rate mail is adequate; and (3) management oversight is effective at each organizational level.

GAO found that: (1) although the program has improved mail preparation, it still has some operational shortcomings; (2) three of the five management sectional centers (MSC) visited had mail entering the mail stream without formal acceptance and inspection; (3) inadequate records management made it impossible to determine if USPS made all of the required verification tests; (4) between June 1983 and November 1984, 322 mailings that originated at station or branch post offices bypassed acceptance processing at two MSC; and (5) although verification of all bulk-rate mail is necessary for correct presort to qualify for a discount rate, USPS continues to accept an unknown amount of unverified mail at discount rates. GAO also found that: (1) mail clerks worked independently with little or no supervision; (2) unit supervisors at all but one center did not make quality control checks to ensure that clerks followed prescribed sampling procedures or routinely reviewed completed verification forms for accuracy; (3) clerks often reported higher error rates when their performance was being observed; (4) management oversight was limited at all regional offices; and (5) there was no evidence that management used available statistical data to identify and correct program deficiencies or took action to correct incorrect data.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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