Federal Reports

As part of its Delivering for America plan, the U.S. Postal Service is purchasing and deploying approximately 66,000 electric vehicles and charging stations to support its delivery fleet modernization. The Postal Service generally combined this rollout with its efforts to convert plants into consolidated sorting and delivery centers. It planned to use excess power from converted plants to reduce power upgrades and scheduling risks. The Postal Service expects to complete construction at 130 sites by the end of 2024 and to deploy electric vehicles at an estimated 800 sites by 2028. As of March 26th, 2024, the Postal Service confirmed it completed construction and commissioning at six sites.

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The OIG received a hotline allegation in June 2022 concerning delays of over 30 days to complete burials at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. In August 2022, the executive director of the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) Pacific District substantiated the delays and attributed them to limited permanent committal shelter space (only one was available), the number of burials feasible per day (no more than nine), family preference, and COVID 19 restrictions.The OIG analyzed data for all NCA burials completed from January 1, 2022, through March 31, 2023. On average, the time from notification to burial was 33 days with a range of 1 to 799 days. Although NCA policy does not set a time requirement, the OIG conducted this audit to determine whether NCA’s oversight ensures the preferences of families are appropriately considered when scheduling burials and can identify potential burial delays.The OIG found that NCA does not have sufficient data to determine if it is scheduling burials in accordance with family preferences and identifying potential burial delays. The two information systems that contain data on burials do not log family preferences. Therefore, the OIG team listened to recorded scheduling phone calls to the National Cemetery Scheduling Office (NCSO) for a sample of burials. The team projected those results to all 5,200 burials that took place in the audit period. The team estimated that for some 2,800 burials with a recorded call scheduling a burial, family preferences were met for about 97 percent. The other 3 percent lacked sufficient information because the scheduled burial was subsequently changed without documentation to indicate whether the changes were at the family’s or NCA’s request.The OIG recommended NCA obtain the capability to identify and monitor potential scheduling delays and ensure family preferences are being met at national cemeteries.

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 about 330 processing facilities and 31,100 post offices, stations, and branches. The Postal Service is transforming its processing and logistics networks to become scalable, reliable, visible, efficient, automated, and digitally integrated. This includes modernizing operating plans and aligning the workforce; leveraging emerging technologies to provide world-class visibility and tracking of mail 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.