Office of the Inspector General, United States Postal Service

The Office of Inspector General for the United States Postal Service (USPS OIG) was established by the 1988 amendments to the Inspector General Act of 1978. The act had created OIGs in 12 federal agencies following a series of public spending scandals to investigate and audit the programs and operations of agencies that, in many cases, had failed to supervise their own spending, to ferret out fraud and misconduct, and to help prevent and end the misuse of funds. The act granted the Inspectors General broad authority to: conduct audits and investigations; access all agency records directly; hire staff and manage their own resources; and receive and respond to complaints from agency employees, whose confidentiality was to be protected.Recognizing the importance of a USPS OIG independent from management, in 1996 Congress created the Postal Service’s independent Office of Inspector General to be its eyes and ears to detect and prevent waste, fraud, theft, and misconduct. The Inspector General is appointed by the nine presidentially appointed Governors of the Postal Service and reports twice a year to the Governors and to Congress. The USPS OIG’s independence allows it to more effectively perform its mission, “to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of USPS programs and operations, while eliminating and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse.”Since it was established, the Office of Inspector General has issued 3,077 audit reports and management advisories accounting for more than $3.7 billion in questioned costs, unrecoverable costs, funds put to better use, and revenue impact. During the fiscal year 2006 alone, the Office of Inspector General completed 6,357 investigations resulting in 293 arrests, 237 indictments, 209 convictions, and 2,977 administrative actions. Injury compensation fraud investigations saved the Postal Service $105 million in long-term costs, and $20.9 million in fines and restitution went to the Postal Service as a result of investigative work.