Postal Service

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed 246 sample sites that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) acquired during 1987 under its real estate acquisition program to determine the extent to which USPS: (1) had a choice among competing sites when acquiring land; (2) purchased only the land it needed to meet operational and customer service requirements; and (3) purchased the most economical alternative among competing sites.

GAO found that USPS: (1) projected community service needs over a 10-year period, and then routinely added a standard 50-percent growth factor, to determine its site needs; (2) routinely added to 20-year land requirements to allow for possible site restrictions without knowing whether it could meet those requirements without the additional allowance; (3) did not require its site selection committees to document reasons for selecting more costly sites; (4) frequently purchased sites that were larger than it needed, when less costly sites were available; (5) cited valid operational factors, in those site selection files which included documentation, to justify the purchase of larger or more costly sites; (6) frequently only had one contending site, due to its policy of advertising for sites larger than its actual requirements; (7) generally followed site appraisal procedures before purchasing sites and attempted to negotiate lower prices when the offer price exceeded the appraised market value; and (8) generally accepted without negotiation sites offered at prices equal to or lower than the appraised market value.

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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