Federal Reports

Background

In June 2023, the U.S. Postal Service authorized the creation of relief supervisor positions in customer service, mail processing, maintenance, and logistics. The intent of these newly created positions is to provide coverage for regular supervisors during their leave and scheduled days off and reduce the reliance on acting supervisors. Relief supervisors are responsible for performing the same job duties and have the same training requirements as regular supervisors. Relief supervisor positions are earned at the facility level using a ratio of one relief supervisor for every five authorized regular supervisors. As of fiscal year (FY) 2025, the Postal Service filled 1,949 of the 2,168 (89.9 percent) authorized relief supervisor positions nationwide.

What We Did

Our objective was to evaluate the establishment of the relief supervisor position and its impact on the workforce. We judgmentally selected 17 Postal Service facilities nationwide based on relief supervisor positions and interviewed headquarters personnel, facility managers, and relief supervisors to understand the position and responsibilities.

What We Found

Overall, we determined the relief supervisor position was implemented successfully to provide coverage for regular supervisors on leave and scheduled days off. We found 31 of 33 (93.9 percent) relief supervisors believed the position was aligned with the job description and were satisfied with the position.

However, we concluded that the Postal Service did not effectively reduce its reliance on acting supervisors when it brought on relief supervisors, as was intended. During FYs 2023 through 2025, facilities with relief supervisors still accounted for more than half of all acting supervisors’ hours used nationwide. This occurred due to lack of effective workhour management, detailing relief supervisors into other roles, and organizational changes. As a result, in FY 2025, we identified $62.7 million in questioned costs due to the increase in total relief supervisor and acting supervisor workhours.

Recommendations and Management’s Comments

We made two recommendations to address the issues identified, and Postal Service management disagreed with both recommendations. We will pursue the two disagreed recommendations through the audit resolution process. Management’s comments and our evaluation are at the end of each finding and recommendation.

The report presents key considerations for decision makers when conducting overseas post closure activities, including suggestions on how to increase the closure process’s effectiveness while mitigating risk. 
The insights, lessons learned, and best practices captured in this review are based on the 29 interviews we conducted with Peace Corps staff who had extensive post closure experience. We identified three main areas that the agency should focus on to ensure it identifies and mitigates potential post closure risks, to include: sustaining mission success; protecting institutional reputation; and ensuring operational integrity and efficiency. Our report concludes with a consolidated set of relevant agency policies, procedures, and resource materials to support consistent implementation for future closures.

SEC Information Technology supervisor resigned, and two employees were suspended following investigation into whether they golfed during duty hours without taking leave

The purpose of this memorandum is to notify stakeholders of the decision to cancel the EAC OIG impact evaluation of the HAVA grants awarded to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The U.S. Government Publishing Office, Office of the Inspector General, conducted an audit to assess the maturity of cybersecurity incident response capabilities for detection, analysis, and handling, Project Number A-2025-002.The OIG reported two findings and made three recommendations to improve cybersecurity incident response. 

This is the third and final report of the fiscal year 2025 financial statement audits of the Smithsonian Institution performed by the independent accounting firm of KPMG LLP.