Gao Identifies USPS As High Risk

Every two years, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) provides the U.S. Congress with an update on its High-Risk Program, which highlights major problems that are at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse mismanagement or in need of broad reform. There are 30 areas on GAO's High-Risk list.

I thought some of you might find the following extract of the GAO's take on the USPS to be of interest.



For those who might be interested in reading more, the complete report is available at http://www.gao.gov/highrisk/risks/high_risk.php

Edit: Let me apologize, not for the ills of America, but rather for including an incorrect link to the complete report in the original post.

This sounds like a problem that warrants the actions taken to help the automakers or wall street. I know its not an answer but something quick needs to be done. Unfortunately the bureaucratic side of any government agency hampers any quick fixes. 1 year 5 cent increase on mailings x 170 billion pcs = 8.5 billion dollars ( special 5 cent stamp with tete beche cinderella of US military to encourage or offset the pain of the increase) . Just a thought from Canada. If only it was that easy.

I'm no accountant by any means, but it seems to me that some of the $ amounts quoted in these reports are (intentionally?) flawed. For example, USPS has a FY'2011 1st Quarter Report at this link:

http://www.usps.com/communications/...pr11_014.htm

Just to use one figure as an example, USPS claims first class mail revenue of $8.8 billion on 20 billion pieces. While I have a hard time dealing with those large numbers, a quick calculation on my adding machine makes that out to be 44 cents per piece (the first class rate). If one were to consider that figure correct, then where did all the revenue go for all of the first class mail about the 1st ounce rate of 44 cents?

I am ready to take on the CAO job at USPS. Call me. (PS I'm friendly to philatelists)

With due respect,
as someone who occaisionally watches overseas reports
on conditions in the US, which may or may not be biased,
you get the feeling, like, what the hell are you doing over there?

It looks to me like problems with the USPS is the least of your problems, I saw a report last evening of people being tossed
out of their accomodation, and people losing <ALL> their possesions
because they cannot afford to pay rent on their lock ups.
I gotta tell you it didn't look good.

Yet as as a casual observer, you still seem to be
wandering the globe spending billions on wars and aid.
I may be misinformed, I may be off target, but this is how it
looks from outside, I like the American people, and I fear for your
lot, the way you are going, something needs fixing, and the USPS
is far down the list.

"Dateline" last evening:

Imagine having just 15 minutes to gather your possessions and get out of your home. It's a reality, not in a wartorn country, but in the glittering gambling capital of the United States, Las Vegas.

Sergeant Deputy Patrick Geary has the job of evicting people who've failed to pay their rent and have nowhere else to turn for help. They're thrown out onto the street, with their children and whatever else they can carry.

Others can't afford the rent on storage units containing their personal belongings… they lose it all to the highest bidder at a repossession auction.

Miranda Grit reports for Dateline on the desperate unemployment crisis facing Las Vegas, where financial success or failure is traditionally seen as a litmus test for America's economy.

This is a sink or swim culture here in the US, Rod. It is jarring when you come from a more benevolent culture. This "all or nothing" attitude is deeply rooted in the American psyche and stems from it's puritanical roots.

Rod, that is about what it looks like from the inside.

The section from "What Needs to Be Done" reads like it came from a Dilbert comic strip.

It is not pretty from here on the inside. Where the US is headed is anyone's guess. The current situation can't continue for much longer. And that is the end of my political rant. Stamps offer a convenient escape. Not wanting to be too much the ostrich with its head in the sand.

Its becoming increasingly the same here in Canada. Although we have about 1/10th the population it equals out to what the $%&* is goin on. I've always been a firm believer in voting and don't complain unless you have an answer to the problem but its really to the point that no matter which political party is elected. The problem is beyond and unfortunatly the deliberations and debates to solve anything increase another line of debt that usually exceeds the original agenda.
Maybe that is why we collect stamps to hold in our hands presidents , kings and queens that represent better times gone by.

Maybe my glasses are a permanent rose tint, but I keep thinking that life in general is not in the dumpster quite yet. Sure, there are problems, individual as well as collective, but somehow modern democracies always seem to be able to mumble their way through to some sort of solution, even if it is one that doesn't make everyone happy. Can any solution ever do that with a diverse population and an elected government that must by its very nature cater to the wishes and needs of its greatest supporters?

Goals in Canada have always been very similar to those of our neighbor, the United States, even if we can't agree on how to pronounce the letter "z". In Western Canada, the artificial line drawn along the 49th parallel from the Great Lakes 3000 or so km. to the Pacific Ocean, was pretty much ignored in my father's day at the convenience and discretion of those people living close to it on both sides.

Even so, there are differences in how our respective governments have chosen to deal with social and economic issues. Sometimes the "rugged independance" to the south has worked to their greater advantage and sometimes the "bigger government" approach up here has proven best. You would think that in an atmosphere of change and difficulty, that two approaches being so geographically and culturally close and so intertwined, could learn from each other despite the disparity in size and economy but that doesn't often happen.

However, I still think that one day, in the not too far distant future, as my attention emerges even briefly from the pages of my stamp albums, I will see the glimmers of solutions to those current problems we are worried about even as new and different ones are surfacing to be dealt with by those carping, fractious, self-centred, procrastinating, but generally well intentioned institutions that govern us by our choice and our power at the ballot box.