06.06.24

ND Delegation: USPS Inspector General Completes Audit of North Dakota Postal Operations, Makes Recommendations to Ensure Timely Mail Service

WASHINGTON – Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer and Representative Kelly Armstrong today announced that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has completed its audit of postal operations in the Minnesota-North Dakota District. The audit covers USPS facilities state-wide and follows the interim audit results released in March covering facilities in Bismarck, Mandan and Minot. This comes as a result of the delegation urging the USPS IG to expand its audit of the Minnesota-North Dakota District, review postal operations across the state and make recommendations to ensure timely mail service for North Dakotans.

The delegation offices were briefed on the results of the full audit, which focused on five areas, including delayed mail, package scanning, arrow keys, carrier complement and timekeeping, and property conditions. The IG found operational deficiencies in each area at a district-wide level. Accordingly, the IG recommended that district management:

  • Provide sufficient training for management on proper mail delivery practices, including delivering all committed mail daily (Mandan).
  • Review staffing alignment within the district and provide adequate staff to deliver all committed mail daily (Bismarck, Minot).
  • Identify and implement additional strategies to fill and retain carrier and clerk positions (District-wide).
  • Train management at all delivery units on the proper procedures for identifying, quantifying and reporting delayed mail (District-wide).
  • Train all employees on standard operating procedures for package scanning and handling (Bismarck, Mandan, Minot).
  • Address all remaining building safety, security and maintenance issues (Mandan).
  • Verify that all Contract Delivery Service route carriers and their assistants possess a Postal Service photo identification badge (Mandan).

“The completion of this audit shines a light on the challenges facing postal delivery across our state, but the work does not stop with the release of the audit,” said the delegation. “USPS needs to implement the IG’s recommendations in a timely way to ensure homes and businesses receive their mail, packages and other deliveries without delay. That’s exactly what we will continue working to accomplish, while also holding USPS leadership accountable to make sure they address local concerns and that any changes to mail processing and other postal operations in our state actually result in benefits to local residents.”

This comes as part of ongoing efforts by Hoeven, Cramer and Armstrong to address concerns regarding delayed delivery of mail, packages and newspapers, as well as concerns about the proposed changes to mail processing facilities. In particular, the delegation has repeatedly outlined to USPS the potential impact of moving mail processing out of these local communities on timely mail delivery. Additionally, Hoeven and Cramer joined a bipartisan Senate effort calling on USPS to pause the Mail Processing Facility Review (MPFR) and to conduct a full study on any potential MPFR changes. In response to the delegation’s efforts, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy last month agreed to pause the implementation of the MPFR, including proposed changes to processing in Grand Forks and Bismarck, until after January 1, 2025.

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