The OIG has a long history of auditing individual mail delivery units and processing plants in the field, though these audits were conducted independently of each other. In November 2021, we rolled out our Field Operations Review Team (FORT) to provide a faster and more comprehensive evaluation of local service issues. These field audits do not just look at problems at a single facility, they review several facilities to also look for interrelated issues affecting performance.
When FORT examines a particular location, a team of auditors swoop to a targeted city or area. The team completes a “cluster” of audits, performing observations at multiple delivery units and a mail processing plant over the course of three days. They observe operations throughout the day, starting early in the morning and often into the middle of the night, to make sure they have a full understanding of operations. For example,
- At the delivery units, the teams assess delivery operations and property conditions.
- At the mail processing plant, the team evaluates the efficiency of processing and logistics operations.
Once the FORT observations are complete, the writing and evaluations start. We then release a cluster of reports with the findings from our review of each delivery unit and processing plant. A capping report summarizing the delivery findings and providing recommendations is issued later. You can read reports from Georgia, our latest cluster, here. If our auditors spot an urgent problem over the course of a site visit, they bring the issue to local management for immediate action.
Since its inception, our Field Operations Review Teams have issued 30 “clusters” of reports from 26 states spanning the country (as well as DC and Puerto Rico). You can find more details on our Field Operations Review page. How are locations chosen? Sometimes they are selected in response to Congressional requests, others are chosen based on data analytics from our Research and Insights Solution Center.
We are #OIGProud of everything that our Field Operations Review Teams have accomplished.