Federal Reports

Background

The U.S. Postal Service needs effective and productive operations to fulfill its mission of providing prompt, reliable, and affordable mail service to the American public. It has a vast transportation network that moves mail and equipment among approximately 308 processing facilities and 31,100 post offices, stations, and branches. The Postal Service is transforming its processing and logistics networks to become more scalable, reliable, visible, efficient, automated, and digitally integrated. This includes modernizing operating plans and aligning the workforce to meet marketplace needs; leveraging emerging technologies to provide world-class visibility and tracking of mail and packages in near real time; and optimizing the surface and air transportation network. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviews the efficiency of mail processing operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback to further the Postal Service’s mission.

Background 

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide timely, reliable, secure, and affordable mail and package delivery to more than 160 million residential and business addresses across the country. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviews delivery operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback in furtherance of this mission. 

This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of delivery operations and property conditions at the Lynchburg Main Post Office (MPO) in Lynchburg, VA. The Lynchburg MPO is in the Virginia District of the Atlantic Area and serves about 104,574 people in ZIP Codes 24501, 24502, 24503, and 24504, which are considered a predominantly urban area. Specifically, 95,077 (91 percent) live in urban communities and 9,497 (9 percent) live in rural communities.1 The unit also services ZIP Codes 24506, 24513, 24514, and 24515 for PO Box routes and business customers.

Background

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide timely, reliable, secure, and affordable mail and package delivery to more than 160 million residential and business addresses across the country. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviews delivery operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback in furtherance of this mission.

This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of delivery operations and property conditions at the Virginia Beach Main Post Office (MPO) in Virginia Beach, VA (Project Number 26-044-4). The Virginia Beach MPO is in the Virginia District of the Atlantic Area and serves about 58,954 people in ZIP Code 23452, which is considered an urban community. The unit also services ZIP Code 23450 for PO Boxes.

Background

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide timely, reliable, secure, and affordable mail and package delivery to more than 160 million residential and business addresses across the country. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviews delivery operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback in furtherance of this mission. 

This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of delivery operations and property conditions at the Norfolk Sorting and Delivery Center (S&DC) in Norfolk, VA. The Norfolk S&DC is in the Virginia District of the Atlantic Area and serves about 170,203 people in ZIP Codes 23523, 23324, 23325, 23504, 23507, 23508, 23509, 23510, 23517, 23323 and 23551, which are considered a predominantly urban area. Specifically, 166,886 (98 percent) live in urban communities and 3,317 (2 percent) live in rural communities.

Background

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide timely, reliable, secure, and affordable mail and package delivery to more than 160 million residential and business addresses across the country. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviews delivery operations at facilities across the country and provides management with timely feedback in furtherance of this mission. This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of delivery operations and property conditions at the Virginia Beach Main Post Office (MPO) in Virginia Beach, VA (Project Number 26-044-4). The Virginia Beach MPO is in the Virginia District of the Atlantic Area and serves about 58,954 people in ZIP Code 23452, which is considered an urban community. The unit also services ZIP Code 23450 for PO Boxes.

This delivery unit has 44 city routes. From December 13, 2025, through January 9, 2026, the delivery unit had 13 supervisors assigned. During our site visit, the management team working at the Virginia Beach MPO consisted of a postmaster, a station manager, two AM supervisors, a PM supervisor, and a customer service support supervisor. Another supervisor was detailed to a different unit, and one employee was acting in a higher-level supervisor detail at this unit. As of January 9, 2026, the year-to-date employee availability rate for the Virginia Beach MPO was 93.0 percent, which is less than the Postal Service’s retail and delivery operations employee availability goal of 93.95 percent for fiscal year 2026. The Virginia Beach MPO is one of three delivery units the OIG reviewed during the week of February 9, 2026, that are serviced by the Norfolk Local Processing Center (LPC). During the same week, the OIG also reviewed a fourth delivery unit within the Virginia District that is serviced by the Roanoke Processing and Distribution Center.

We determined whether the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) is ensuring that the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) is achieving service availability requirements. We found that overall, FirstNet Authority did not ensure that the NPSBN met service availability requirements. We found that FirstNet Authority did not adequately assess contractor performance to ensure that AT&T achieved service availability requirements. Specifically,

• FirstNet Authority’s approach to measuring service availability fails to provide a comprehensive assessment, covering only a fraction of cell sites and of the NPSBN’s approximately 3-million-square-mile coverage footprint.
• FirstNet Authority did not ensure that contractor-provided information was reliable and accurate and that contract requirements were met.
• FirstNet Authority did not verify that service availability requirements were met for the Pacific territories.

On July 4, 2025, flash flooding occurred in Kerr County in central Texas when water levels along the Guadalupe River rose rapidly, causing widespread and severe property damage, injury, and loss of life. Given the catastrophic nature of the flash flood event, plus ongoing concerns about staffing levels at the National Weather Service (NWS), members of Congress asked OIG to examine NWS’s response and resources.

We reviewed the actions taken by NWS prior to and during the catastrophic flash flood. Throughout the event, NWS was responsible for coordinating with its core partners and issuing timely weather and emergency alerts. The Austin/San Antonio Weather Forecast Office (WFO) coordinated and communicated with core partners and issued multiple flood alerts on July 3 and 4. Although staffing vacancies existed at the WFO, staff asserted that the vacancies did not affect their ability to forecast, issue flood alerts, and provide support to Kerr County officials and other core partners.

This review provides a snapshot of key NWS actions and responses prior to and during the flood. It focuses on NWS staffing, coordination, forecasting, and issuance of flood alerts, with an emphasis on NWS support provided to Kerr County, Texas.

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) business unit (BU) focuses on identifying and prioritizing enterprise risks. Annually, ERM leads the preparation of an enterprise risk portfolio, which includes risks across TVA, to aid leadership in strategic and business planning processes.  Each BU includes their specific risks in the portfolio and documents the probability of occurrence, financial impact, and actions to manage the risk.  TVA Nuclear included Asset/Equipment Failure –  Low-Pressure Turbines risk in fiscal year (FY) 2025 ERM risk portfolio. The risk description stated that one or more low-pressure turbines fail to perform as designed and the details only included Units 2 and 3 at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (Browns Ferry).  The actions to address the risk included installing new turbines and steam-path upgrades.  Due to the importance of the reliability of TVA’s nuclear assets, we performed an evaluation of the risk mitigation of low-pressure turbines to determine if TVA was taking planned actions and measuring the impact of completed actions.

We determined TVA has taken actions or has plans in place to address the low-pressure turbine risk.  TVA Nuclear has completed 11 of 15 mitigating actions identified for the risk.  The 4 remaining actions are expected to be completed between 2028 and 2030. However, we determined TVA was not effectively measuring the impact of completed actions and a change in the risk scope on the probability of occurrence and financial impact.  In addition, we identified some risk information was not documented accurately.

Introduction

This management alert presents issues the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General identified during the Counterfeit Postage Program audit. Our objective is to promptly notify the U.S. Postal Service about an identified deficiency in the detection of counterfeit package labels.

Background

The Postal Service is a self-funded entity that primarily finances its operations through postage sales, with package delivery comprising a major portion of its services. During fiscal year 2025, the Postal Service shipped 6.8 billion packages, generating $32.6 billion in revenue. The Postal Service offers both domestic and international shipping services for purchase through multiple channels, including third party vendors, its Click-N-Ship online service, and over the retail counter at local post offices. Foreign postal operators also sell shipping labels for packages that are shipped from other countries and are sent to the United States.