Unfilled managerial positions and broken equipment were among the issues that led to a 4% drop in in mail processing at a Baltimore postal service hub last year, according to a new audit.
The audit found that a number of vacant supervisor and manager positions at the facility, which were left unfilled due to a nationwide hiring freeze from August 2020 to May 2021, “resulted in inadequate management oversight of operations and employees.”
“This contributed to a decrease in productivity for letters, flats, parcels, and the manual mail operation, compared to the same period last year,” the audit reads.
In total, the Baltimore Processing and Distribution Center processed about 1.67 billion pieces of mail between Aug. 1, 2020, and July 31, 2021, about 70 million fewer pieces of mail than the same period the previous year. During the same time period, hours and overtime increased 14.6 and 43.5% respectively.