Postal Service management sharply critiques auditors’ findings, saying GAO has a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the agency.
The U.S. Postal Service is taking many steps to ensure accountability and good performance as it implements a 10-year plan to transform its delivery network and operations, but a new report found it is creating unnecessary risks by thinking too much in the short term and not learning lessons as it goes.
USPS launched its Delivering for America strategic plan, spearheaded by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, with 181 individual projects. That number was down to 126 earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office said, most of which are being carried out with a defined vision, significant oversight and with specific metrics to measure progress. When things have gone wrong, however, GAO found the Postal Service is making adjustments without a firm understanding of why or how to make improvements in the future.
Postal management mostly objected to the findings, saying GAO did not understand its work and was trying to force the agency to follow its narrowly defined rubric for project management.