The U.S. Postal Service has slashed jobs, posted net losses for several consecutive years, raised its prices and cut back on services. The latest problem for the beleaguered agency? Decrepit post offices.
USPS instituted a capital spending freeze in 2009, resulting in a severe underfunding of postal facilities’ upkeep, the agency’s inspector general wrote in ablog post this week. The Postal Service slashed $382 million in its budget for facility repairs between fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2012.
The agency did not complete more than 19,000 repairs in fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2012, according to a recent IG report. Half of those uncompleted projects represented safety or security risks, and about 16 percent presented potential Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations.
Iowa Postal News 