USPS | The Contracting Education Academy

August 21, 2014 By AMK

IG: USPS should rescind its facilities contract delegation

The Postal Service should rescind its facilities contract delegation because the contracting officers aren’t required to meet professional qualifications or establish competition requirements, an Aug. 5 USPS inspector general report says.

USPS’s Supply Management office is responsible for approving contracts to acquire goods and services, but they can delegate contracting authority to personnel outside of Supply Management, the report says.

In September 2013, the Postal Service reported six delegations. And though five of those delegations have performed well, the facilities delegation hasn’t, the IG says.

Facilities did not require contracting officers to meet professional qualifications or establish sufficient competition requirements for contracts, the report says. Also, the facilities delegation could not identify its active contracts and did not timely submit the required annual reports.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/ig-usps-should-rescind-its-facilities-contract-delegation/2014-08-12

August 13, 2014 By AMK

IG: USPS facility nearly 4 months late paying contractors

The Postal Service made payments nearly four months late to contractors shipping mail out of the Indianapolis processing and distribution facility, a recently released USPS inspector general report says.

The distribution center did not process about $74,000 in exceptional service payments in a timely manner over the eight month period from June 2013 through January 2014, the report says. The Postal Service gives bonuses to contractors who provide exceptional service, including changes in normally scheduled transportation operations including extra trips and late leaving trips.

“Management stated that contractors were alarmed by the frequency and amount of payments the Postal Service owed them and were looking for assistance to resolve these payment issues,” the report says.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/ig-usps-facility-nearly-4-months-late-paying-contractors/2014-08-06

July 14, 2014 By AMK

IG says USPS needs to better monitor spending on its employee travel cards

U.S. Postal Service travel card coordinators need to more efficiently monitor cash advances that they give to traveling employees because many of those advances potentially didn’t comply with travel policy, says a June 25 report by the inspector general.

The Postal Service provides individual government travel cards to some employees for use while on official travel.

As of Jan. 15, USPS had 44,104 government travel cardholders who made 247,419 purchases, totaling $44.9 million. They also took 8,793 cash advances, totaling $1.6 million, from April 1, 2012, through March 31, 2013, the report says.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/ig-usps-needs-better-monitor-spending-its-employee-travel-cards/2014-07-02

June 10, 2014 By AMK

USPS losing millions to fuel-guzzling contractors

The Postal Service incurred millions in unnecessary fuel costs from its contractors because it isn’t using industry averages for fuel consumption and has no procedures in place to ensure contractors are using fuel efficient vehicles, a May 27 USPS inspector general report says.

USPS contracts for transportation on over 15,000 highway contract routes by identifying miles to be driven and negotiating a base operating rate per mile, the report says.

Fuel is a major component of HCR total costs. The Postal Service negotiates annual fuel allotments based on miles per gallon, considering past suppliers’ MPG contracts and general vehicle and route type, the report says.

In fiscal 2012, HCRs used over 242 million gallons of fuel, costing USPS almost a billion dollars.

Keep reading this story at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/usps-losing-millions-fuel-guzzling-contractors/2014-06-05

September 30, 2013 By AMK

USPS didn’t justify $210M in noncompetitive purchases, IG says

The Postal Service likely didn’t justify $210 million in noncompetitive purchases made over two fiscal years, which puts USPS at risk for not obtaining the best price when awarding contracts, a Sept. 25 USPS inspector general report says.

Contracting officials at the USPS did not document a finding of price or cost reasonableness or write up a necessary justification in 21 of 56 statistically-sampled noncompetitive contract awards worth $37 million that the inspector general audited. Based on those findings, auditors project that at least $210 million worth of Postal Service purchases in fiscals 2011 and 2012 likewise lacked documentation to show that the noncompetitive award was necessary and not unnecessarily expensive. The mail deliverer spent $1.3 billion on contracts those two fiscal years.

Agencies must conduct a price or cost analysis to support that noncompetitive contract prices were fair and reasonable. And there must be documentation that that process took place.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/usps-didnt-justify-nearly-40-million-noncompetitive-purchases-ig-says/2013-09-26

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