MINNESOTA, USA — The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General announced it will investigate delivery delays and several other issues after an audit of four east metro postal locations.
The Office of Inspector General's audits revealed many deficiencies, according to the report. It cited issues with delayed mail, package scanning, arrow keys, carrier complement and timekeeping, and property conditions at the Eagan and Apple Valley post offices and the New Brighton Carrier Annex. An audit for the Saint Paul Processing and Distribution Center identified similar issues.
This comes after Democrat U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and south metro residents in her district reported delays or other deficiencies in mail service.
"The OIG reports were really, really concerning," said Craig. "It really validated what we've been saying for a year now - that there have been serious service level issues in the second district of Minnesota and many of these cities."
In all four reports, there were thousands of delays reported of mail on a particular day. For example, the report for Eagan read "On the morning of November 14, 2023, we identified about 53,129 delayed mailpieces."
In all of the reports, facility management cited insufficient staffing. However, the audit pointed out that in most cases it was management to blame for the issues.
"I am not surprised because we have heard so many people say they've had delayed mail," said Senator Amy Klobuchar, who, along with Senator Tina Smith, called for a district-wide investigation in December.
Craig, along with U.S. Republican Rep. Pete Stauber, led another call for an investigation into the Minnesota-North Dakota postal district earlier in January.
Paul Hoyer goes to the Eagan post office. He says mail has been slow lately.
"A lot of nights we get it at 9 o clock, some days it don't come until the next day," said Hoyer.
Hoyer said he is sympathetic to management and staffing delays. Rep. Craig is not.
"We need the postal service to fix the issues," said Craig.
According to the OIG's website, the office will issue another report summarizing the results of the district audit with specific recommendations for management to address.
The USPS denied an interview request and instead referred to comments published with the audit. Managers with the district said "management generally agrees" with the findings, although USPS reported that in some of the issues noted information is 'misleading' because the audit highlights the number of issues but fails to compare it to the entire scope of their work. It also listed many steps the postal service is taking to prevent the issues.
Watch more Breaking The News:
Watch all of the latest stories from Breaking The News in our YouTube playlist: