Jill Schramm/MDN The Minot Post Office, shown Tuesday, was the subject of a U.S. Postal Service Inspector General audit completed this month. The audit report was released Tuesday and recommendations are to follow.

Postal auditors found several issues, including delayed mail and improper mail scanning, during a recent audit of the Minot Post Office, according to a report released Tuesday.

Staff shortages often were cited by management for cutting corners in mail handling, according to the report.

“Management also stated that because of limited staffing, they have part-time employees, custodians, and supervisors sorting and delivering mail,” the audit report stated. “District management stated they have attended job fairs and posted advertisements in the lobby. However, they have had a difficult time hiring and retaining rural carriers.”

Auditors found issues in five areas examined at the post offices in Minot and Mandan and the carrier annex in Bismarck. The audit found mail service was delayed in all three and also identified deficiencies in each in package scanning, property conditions, arrow (master) keys, and carrier complement and time keeping, which relates to staffing. It identified an issue related to contract carrier badges at the Mandan Post Office.

At the Bismarck Processing & Distribution Center (P&DC) that serves the region, the audit identified deficiencies resulting in delayed mail and found about 15% of outbound trips were late, canceled or extra, generally due to a poor performing contractor. A supervisor position that the center hasn’t been able to fill and new employees yet to be fully trained were cited among reasons for mail delays.

Postal management agreed with the five recommendations in the P&DC report, according to the Office of Inspector General, which conducted the audit. An upcoming report will include recommendations regarding the three post offices.

The Minot Post Office was selected for audit because of the number of customer inquiries. Minot averaged 7.2 Customer360 inquiries per route, compared to the 3.5 inquiries in the district average. It averaged 51.5 customer inquiries related to Informed Delivery, compared to 19.3 inquiries for the district.

Customer360 is a cloud-based application that allows postal workers to diagnose, resolve and track customer inquiries. Informed Delivery is a free postal offering that provides customers information about incoming mail.

According to the audit, on Jan. 23, a review identified about 23,784 delayed mail pieces at 28 carrier cases, on the workroom floor and on the dock in Minot. The mail on the workroom floor was from a large eCommerce mailer.

Only about 20% of the delayed mail had been reported by management in the Post Service’s management tool, the audit report stated. The supervisor told auditors he often was the only one on duty and didn’t update the delayed mail volumes in the system because he became overwhelmed with other responsibilities.

Management told auditors the mail delays were due to insufficient staffing due to vacancies, retirements, employees taking unscheduled leave and staff not showing up to work without notice for long periods of time.

The Minot Post Office is authorized for 26 rural carriers, but as of Jan. 25, it had 18 rural carriers assigned, and two of those reported to other post offices, the audit report stated.

Regarding the mail on the workroom floor, the audit noted, “Management stated they were following a process put in place by senior management during the peak holiday season to help manage high volumes of packages. Instead of using a first in, first out process, they sample packages and distribute them based on the scheduled delivery day. Local management was unaware the process had ended after the holiday season.”

Inspectors say Minot postal workers responded with immediate corrective action to have the delayed mail delivered.

The staff shortage also was cited as a factor behind supervisors’ failure to document employees’ disallowed time or unauthorized overtime on 18 instances. Supervisors were too busy sorting packages and delivering mail to conduct the documentation.

In reviewing package scanning procedures at Minot, auditors found 457 improperly scanned packages in the post office between October and December 2023. Sixty percent had been improperly scanned as delivered. Another 26% were improperly scanned as delivery attempted.

The Postal Service responded to the audit to note the 457 scanning issues represented less than a tenth of a percent of the total parcel volume during the three-month time frame of the review.

Auditors found 97 scanning errors outside the post office between October and December. Of those, 91 were improperly scanned as delivered. In one case, a carrier scanned a package as delivered seven miles away from the delivery point.

On Jan. 23, 60 packages were reviewed in the post office, for which auditors determined 45% had missing or improper scans or handling issues.

“Although management has a process in place for monitoring package scanning, they did not always perform daily monitoring duties because of competing responsibilities, such as delivering mail,” the audit report stated. “In addition, two supervisors acknowledged responsibility for using the in-office scanners to enter STC (Stop the Clock) on undelivered packages. The supervisors stated they were aware this is not policy, but they did not want the packages to fail their delivery commitment date.”

Stop the Clock indicates the Postal Service has completed its delivery or attempt to deliver.

Management also explained the high number of delivered scans were primarily for customers who routinely pick up packages at the post office. The carriers would scan packages as delivered and place them in the pickup area instead of properly having the clerk scan items as delivered once picked up, the audit report continued.

The failure to manage and safeguard arrow keys (master keys to mail receptacles) to prevent mail theft was discovered in a Jan. 25 review. The audit found 103 of 183 keys located at the post office were not on the monthly certification list, and two of the 82 keys on the list could not be located. In addition, 43 of the 103 keys were broken.

“Unit management had not reported any of the missing keys to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. In addition, arrow keys were not always kept secure. Specially, the arrow keys that were used each day were kept inside an accountability cart in an unlocked office that was periodically left unattended throughout our visit,” auditors wrote.

Management took corrective action by moving the accountability cart into a secured area when not in use.

Regarding property safety issues at the Minot Post Office, three fire extinguishers missed an annual inspection and two missed a monthly inspection. Management responded the missed inspections were oversights because of the extinguishers’ less prominent or hidden locations, including two that were not wall mounted as they should have been.

The employee parking area also lacked signage that vehicles may be subject to search. Previously unaware of the requirement, management ordered two signs.

The Postal Service responded to the audit by stating the following steps are being taken:

– Management at the district level will conduct reviews to monitor for delayed mail and will conduct a service talk on proper recording of delayed mail.

– Management will provide a service talk on proper scanning procedure and conduct reviews to monitor compliance.

– Management will update the inventory log to reflect all arrow keys on hand and report missing keys to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Training was conducted on proper handling and security of arrow keys, and reviews will be conducted to monitor for compliance.

– Management will be retrained on proper record keeping for disallowed time of employees. Binders have been created to store documents, and reviews will be conducted to monitor for compliance.

– Management has begun abating the property safety and security issues.