Congressman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio who requested the expedited audit said,” The level of postal service failure, outlined in the audit, is “staggering,”
According to LimaOhio.com
The report from the postal service’s Office of Inspector General responded to congressional inquiries. The report confirms what the postal service promised wouldn’t happen, that when it closed the Lima mail processing center, the region’s customers suffered.
“Significant degradations in service occurred” after the postal service closed Lima, the report said. On-time performance and customer service declined, and the public let the postal service and inspector general know about it: The Cincinnati District Consumer Affairs Office received 610 complaints while the Office of Inspector General separately received 410 complaints when it requested them online. Customers reported delayed, lost and damaged bills, payments, packages and medicine.
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, was one in Congress who asked for an expedited audit. The level of postal service failure, outlined in the audit, is “staggering,” Jordan said. It’s now up to officials to fix the problems and keep promises they made, Jordan said.
“The audit report confirms the worst of our suspicions. The USPS left area businesses and residents feeling the effects of their mismanagement through late delivery of time-sensitive mail like bills, prescription medication, and legal documents,” Jordan said. “Almost all of the problems could have been avoided with better planning and more effective management.””
The OIG report cited several factors contributed to service degradations, specifically:
– The Toledo P&DC did not adequately staff operations. According to the AMP proposal, management planned to transfer 41 employees to the Toledo P&DC; however, only 31 of the 41 employees reported. The other employees were noshows, retreated to other positions, retired, or were on extended leave. Management did not create a contingency plan that would have minimized the risks of understaffing.
– Morning dispatches to Lima hub facilities were consistently departing the Toledo P&DC late. During the week of December 13, 2010, we observed mail arriving on the dock platform well after the trucks’ scheduled departure time. In addition, mail was not prepared in proper mail transport equipment (MTE) and Highway Contract Route (HCR)11 drivers had to perform mail-sorting duties on the dock for three Lima area hub facilities. Management attributed this to lack of supervision, dispatch discipline, floor space, and MTE. Consequently, the Postal Service spent about $29,000 on mail sorting and dispatch late fees from October through December 2010.
– Postal Service policies did not require a formal AMP implementation team to ensure the AMP was implemented as approved. During our site visit, we observed delayed mail, extensive use of manual operations to sort parcels, proper signage not in place to indicate dispatch or critical entry time, and letter mail
processed to carrier routes rather than Delivery Point Sequencing (DPS)12 due to inefficient sort plans.
– Management elected to transfer all operations and volume during the peak mailing season without adjusting mail flow and sort plans timely to meet operational changes. While the transition period was limited to six months (July through December 2010), management did not complete final planning for the consolidation until September 2010, almost four months after the AMP proposal was approved.
USPS OIG Audit Report Of Lima, OHIO Consolidation