WASHINGTON – North Dakota’s congressional delegation announced Thursday that the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General has agreed to expand its postal audit of the Minnesota-North Dakota District to include Dickinson, Grand Forks and Fargo, in addition to the ongoing audit of facilities in Bismarck, Mandan and Minot.

Specific issues highlighted in requesting the expanded audit were mail and newspaper delays, broken and unavailable cluster box units and ongoing concerns and questions regarding USPS’s proposal to relocate some mail processing in the Bismarck and Grand Forks regions.

The full audit report of the Minnesota-North Dakota District is expected to be released in late March or early April.

The delegation also reported the USPS Inspector General is conducting a review of the USPS’s nationwide effort to relocate mail processing at certain facilities. The North Dakota delegation has heard concerns from constituents regarding the Mail Processing Facility Reviews (MPFR) being undertaken in Bismarck and Grand Forks. This Inspector General report is expected to evaluate the MFPR process and include findings and recommendations on how to improve the process, the delegation said.

This comes in addition to commitments the delegation recently secured from USPS to ensure local newspapers are not sent to Fargo for processing but rather remain within their respective communities for prompt delivery. They also secured assurance that USPS officials will meet with local stakeholders and answer questions once the MFPR process has concluded.