Water-damaged mail left unprocessed for months and a worker asleep at a forklift. These were just two of a host of issues including “a general inattention to detail” uncovered in an audit conducted by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) inspector-general at a new regional processing facility in Virginia.
Last month’s audit challenges the USPS promise to modernize its processing network — the new 719,000-square-foot Richmond facility subject to the audit is the first of a planned 60 regional processing centers that USPS is launching nationwide charged with streamlining operations and improve efficiency, AP reports.
The list of problems at the Richmond center, which opened in July, have contributed to a drop in on-time service that now finds Virginia ranked worst in the nation.
The inspector general said only 66 percent of first-class mail has been delivered within two days in the current fiscal year, compared to a national average of 87 percent.
No other region in the U.S. fell below 80 percent, according to the inspector-general’s office.
AP further outlined USPS has estimated the $23 million facility will produce $15 million annually in savings by consolidating operations. But the audit found that work hours and overtime actually increased after the center opened.
“At this time, it is unclear if the Postal Service will realize the expected savings associated with consolidating operations into the Richmond” regional processing center, the audit concluded.
Auditors also said they discovered “a general inattention to detail that resulted in mail left on or around machines, large amounts of machinable mail in manual processing, and in one case, mail over two months old left in a container in the truck yard.”
They also observed a mail handler sleeping on a parked forklift.
Postal Service officials responded to the audit and said they agree with most of the 10 specific recommendations for improvement as directed.
“We have undertaken extensive efforts to thoroughly address these challenges and issues in Richmond, which has led to continued performance improvement,” the officials said in their formal response to the audit.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
