USPS Inspector General (OIG) David C. Williams announces retirement

US Postal Service Inspector General David C. Williams announced that he is leaving the agency effective February 10. Williams was sworn in as Inspector General (IG) for the U.S. Postal Service on August 20, 2003.

Here is the letter announcing his retirement:

January 22, 2016

I would like to announce a new round of significant operational changes.

Actually I can’t do that… because I can’t think of what another round could possibly look like. You are perfect. And so…I am saying goodbye. My last day is Friday, February 19. You may remember I was eligible to go when my last appointment was renewed, but we were in the midst of a threatening financial storm and I promised to stick with you through it. I will remain on for short time as the Board of Governors name a new Inspector General for the organization.

Organizationally we have returned now to, at least what passes for, normal in Washington. We have received a great appropriation budget in the new President’s Bill for 2016. You survived the digital disruption and the economic downturn and now the Postal Service has adapted and is adjusting to the idea of success in the age of digital globalism. I want to thank you especially for remaining focused and productive through times that were impossibly distracting and worrisome. Your work and your innovative thinking were always incredibly good and the volume of that work was enormous. We asked a great deal of you during this time and you came through barely out of breath.

And, on the way, you have created a world class organization of the future. Together we went from troubled place back in 2003 to good place and from good to best and from best to next generation and beyond. I have always been lucky to be in good organizations, but you are clearly the best I’ve encountered. You have created an organization that doesn’t get old with use, but rather adapts and grows stronger when it is stressed and pounded on. You have become more than a set of structures and monuments. You are many sets of footprints into a future of promise and unending challenge.

In your quest to improve and protect the reputation of the Postal Service, you have peeled back the essence of the place. The Postal Service seen literally is a place of letters and stamps and sorting machines. But going beyond the literal to a conceptual level, the Postal Service is an American infrastructure that enables citizens, innovators and steady old enterprises to succeed. It is an essential part of the new digital economies of America and the world. The Postal Services’ Universal Service Obligation remains a shining promise to bring resources and information to each American everywhere and assures that the nation is there for everyone. In many Countries, rural town and inner-city citizens are people of a lesser nation. Not so in this special place America.

So for all those reasons, I want to thank you for your huge and successful contributions, but also for your friendship. Although there are a lot of us, we feel a deep affection for each other and I certainly feel that way about you.

Some of you have been with me for a very long time. I have seen Carlota and Agapi and a small band in the field every day for my entire time as an Inspector General and some for even longer. For the executives throughout the organization, our time together is something I will always have to look back upon fondly and will treasure.

I will miss seeing you, but I will try hard to stay in touch to the extent that I am able as I head off to my own next frontier.

My best to you all and goodbye to everybody.

Dave