WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) reacted with alarm after the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) released its second quarter financial report in which it documents a net loss of $1.5 billion.
The results indicate a loss of more $2.2 billion for the first half of fiscal year (FY) 2015. The pattern of losses that has characterized the postal budget continues apace; the agency has lost more than $50 billion in the last eight years.
“USPS officials continue to oversee an agency which is not covering its costs,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “Furthermore, agency executives persist in a misguided belief that financial salvation lies in starting new non-postal businesses.”
The most detailed account of the USPS’s costs, known as the Annual Compliance Report (ACR), released at the end of 2014, reveals that while Standard and Priority letter mail service has been profitable, other items like periodicals and some parcel products are financially underwater.
In February, 2015 CAGW submitted comments on the ACR, seeking further insight into the agency’s accounting practices while they were under review by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). CAGW’s comments focused on questions regarding how the agency monitors its expenses and revenues for the purposes of defining its product base. Given its chronic losses and the lack of transparency in its finances, CAGW has raised concerns over whether the USPS is meeting its statutory obligation not to use revenue from its monopoly products to cross subsidize new competitive ventures outside of its core mission. While the USPS has lowered its delivery standards for its first-class mail and the PRC has identified numerous postal products that fail to meet annual performance targets, the USPS is launching multiple new competitive ventures in markets already well served by private-sector entrepreneurs.
“The Postal Service’s substandard accounting, billion-dollar losses, and declining service quality highlights the need for the agency to focus solely on its letter mail products. Straying from its original mission will only compound the USPS’s problems and bring us even closer to the possibility of a taxpayer bailout,” concluded Schatz.
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.
