Watchdog rips operational changes at USPS

The watchdog for the United States Postal Service released a report this week, in which it found that operational changes implemented in June and July had a negative impact on mail delivery across the country. 

The USPS Office of Inspector General conducted the audit amid multiple congressional requests stemming from concerns that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s changes to staffing and policies made after he took office in June affected services operations, leading to slower and less reliable mail delivery. 

The report found that USPS did not conduct an analysis of the impact of the changes on services, and that “documentation and guidance to the field for these strategies was very limited and almost exclusively oral.” 

“The resulting confusion and inconsistency in operations at postal facilities compounded the significant negative service impacts across the country,” the watchdog concluded.  

The OIG also found that documentation of the operation changes provided to Congress and customers was “generally accurate but complete.” 

The independent watchdog further concluded that the changes, combined with the challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, have “negatively impacted the quality and timeliness of mail delivery nationally.”

The watchdog said that the Postal Service’s mail service “significantly dropped” beginning in July, “directly corresponding” to the implementation of  DeJoy’s changes. 

A businessman and long-time Republican donor, DeJoy took over the Postal Service in June as the White House repeatedly claimed that mail-in voting for the 2020 election would lead to widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence. His relationship with President Trump has been in the spotlight as Democrats accuse him of using these changes to try and help Trump win reelection. 

Earlier this month, filings with the Federal Elections Commission revealed that DeJoy donated over $685,000 to the committee that ran the Republican National Convention. 

Mail-in voting has spiked this year as the coronavirus pandemic has forced people to rethink voting in person due to the risk of infection. Over 30 million mail-in ballots have been cast so far in the Nov. 3 general election, according to the U.S. Elections Project, and there’s still two weeks left before election day. 

Last week, the Postal Service agreed to reverse the changes that slowed mail delivery, settling a lawsuit from over a dozen states over the changes. The changes were blamed for potential issues with mail-in ballots and prescription drug deliveries.