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The Postal Service has recognized the need to improve its ability to identify, document, configure, and manage software licenses throughout their lifecycle. In July 2015, the Postal Service approved an investment of about $35 million for a software asset management program, which includes software...
The U.S. Postal Service has a substantial network of about 35,000 retail facilities, including post offices, stations, and branches. The Philadelphia Metropolitan District includes over 250 retail units with a combined retail revenue of over $175 million for fiscal year (FY) 2016. Retail and...
The Postal Service’s pension surplus was projected to be $13.1 billion as of the end of fiscal year 2011. Most of the surplus – $11.4 billion – is in the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) pension program. A surplus occurs when assets exceed accrued liability. FERS has been in surplus since...
Two months ago, we released a white paper entitled Causes of the Postal Service FERS [Federal Employees’ Retirement System] Surplus. The paper was prepared with the assistance of the actuarial firm Hay Group. Hay Group found that the postal surplus in the FERS resulted from differences between...
e-Government has developed over the past 20 years in response to the changing needs of an increasingly digital society. Nevertheless, there are still lingering gaps in security, access, and ease of use that have hindered full, public adoption of existing e-Government services, as well as the...
As a follow-up to its paper, A Primer on Postal Costing Issues, the OIG asked Professor Michael D. Bradley of the Economics Department of George Washington University, an expert in postal economics, to co-author a paper on pricing and short-run costs. This paper defines what is meant by short-run...
This paper provides a documented overview of P2P digital commerce. It includes an examination of specific market facilitators that may be familiar names (eBay, Craigslist, etsy, and others) as well as newer P2P service facilitators such as Airbnb, Getaround, and TaskRabbit. Common attributes of...
In 1963 the Post Office Department introduced the Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code as a means to allow mail sorting methods to become faster and eventually be automated, but the innovation also created unimagined socio-economic benefits as an organizing and enabling device. The ZIP Code is a support...
The OIG performed data analytics to identify offices with lost or stolen stamp stock shipments. We identified expenses regarding stamp stock shipments for the William Penn Annex between May 1, 2016, and April 30, 2017. The objective of this audit was to determine whether internal controls over stamp...
This paper gives readers an overview of the major issues faced by the Postal Service, and the short- and long-term options under discussion to help the Postal Service recover. First, the document identifies Levers of Action the Postal Service could take to help cut costs and generate additional...
