"Postal Service"

The USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently announced that it will be auditing the Postal Service’s Suspension and Debarment program. Debarments most frequently result from a criminal conviction of a company, or its employees. But a contractor can be debarred for any type of improper conduct that negatively reflects on its honesty, ethics, or competence. Resulting debarments have government-wide impact. The thrust of the audit appears to be whether USPS is debarring enough contractors. Read on for more details about OIG’s upcoming audit.

Contractors beware: the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) thinks that $1 out of every $20 spent by USPS on its contractors is fraudulent, and OIG is itching to find it. According to a July 18, 2011 OIG blog article, “conservative business estimates project up to 5 percent of contracted dollars are lost to fraud, meaning $1.45 billion of Postal Service funds are potentially at risk.” While these numbers are fanciful, there is no doubt that the OIG is taking this seriously. Read on for more details.

Sounds crazy, but with a bit of accounting help from Congress, the U.S. Postal Service could go from pauper to prosperous faster than an Express Mail package. Even though the Postal Service is $13 billion in debt, has stopped making certain payments into the federal retirement system, and is projected to become insolvent and lose another $8 billion this year, it could happen. Because over the last 40 years, USPS has overpaid between $50 and $70 billion into the U.S. Treasury, or so says the agency and its independent regulators. Several bills are pending in Congress that could release these funds to the agency. Read on for the details. 

Saving the Postal Service also requires reforming its contracting policies, according to a bill introduced by Rep. Issa (R-Calif.) on June 23, 2011. Prompted by the Postal Service’s decision to stop paying into the federal retirement system and $27 billion in projected losses over three years, the bill would enact sweeping reforms. The “Postal Reform Act of 2011” would create two separate oversight bodies that would have broad, receivership-type authority to impose cost-cutting measures on the agency. While curing postal deficits is the primary goal, the bill specifically addresses postal procurement practices and would impact postal contracting in significant ways. Read on for the details.

Did the U.S. Postal Service’s lack of procurement regulations inadvertently help USPS officials carry out a $13 million bribery scheme over several years?  Five Postal Service employees were indicted in May 2011 by a Detroit, MI grand jury for taking bribes and steering as much as $13 million in vehicle maintenance work to a private contractor. Could this scheme have been prevented, or caught earlier, if USPS had not abolished its procurement regulations in 2006?

What’s more likely to sustain the default termination of your government contract—poor performance on your current contract or omitting a fact about your prior employment? According to a recent decision by the Postal Service Board of Contract Appeals, the latter is enough. A contractor’s omission of key prior employment history was, by itself, a sufficient basis to terminate the contract for default.

A new Congress heard testimony from a new Postmaster General and a panel of postal industry leaders on the state of the Postal Service at a hearing held on March 2, 2011.  Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe made his first Congressional appearance as head of the Postal Service when he testified at these hearings, ominously entitled: “Pushing the Envelope:  The Looming Crisis at USPS.”

The major developments that impacted Postal Service contracting in 2010, and trends for 2011, are explored in this one-hour webinar now available on the Husch Blackwell LLP website. Topics include:  USPS financial condition; impact of USPS Office of Inspector General investigations, newly issued procedures and policies for noncompetitive procurements; changes to the USPS Supplying Principles …

The Postal Service recently issued a revised version of its purchasing policy manual, called the Supplying Principles and Practices (SPP).  The changes adopt recommendations made by the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) in two high-level reviews conducted in 2010. The revisions add new procedures and requirements applicable to noncompetitive procurements, and establish an internal Competition Advocate.  For more details, read on.

Fascinating details about how top Postal Service officials make decisions and interact with each another are contained in a June 21, 2010 report by USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG). The OIG report examines 11 allegations made against Robert Bernstock, the former President of Mailing and Shipping Services. The allegations ranged from serious (steering sole source contracts to former colleagues) to trivial (using his official position to obtain a restaurant reservation). The OIG terminated its 12-month investigation when Bernstock’s employment contract ended in June 2010 and the Department of Justice declined to bring potential criminal violations against him.