Audit finds 74% of undelivered mail went unreported at one Columbus post office
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A series of federal audits found deficiencies at multiple Columbus area post offices as ABC6/FOX28 viewers continue to describe their mail delivery as sporadic and delayed. In one audit, federal postal inspectors found 74% of undelivered mail went unreported at the South Columbus Station on East Innis Avenue.
"Having a business, it means you're not getting your bills out and you're not getting your checks in to keep your business alive so you can pay your employees," John Foreman, a southside landlord, told ABC6 On Your Side Problem Solvers as he entered the East Innis Avenue Post Office.
Foreman said he now picks up his mail at the facility since delivery to his business was dangerously inconsistent.
"If you have tenants or people who want to pay their rent on time or pay their bills on time, they're not getting their bills on time," he explained.
Federal auditors made site visits to four Columbus US Postal facilities for three days in January.
At South Columbus Station which serves more than 45,000 people, auditors took pictures of the 34,000 pieces of delayed mail stuffed in backrooms and boxes. Of those pieces, they state 26% was reported in the Customer Service Daily Reporting System used for tracking. They also noted packages inappropriately scanned. Some packages that had not been delivered also had not been returned to the sender as procedure. Some packages had gone passed their return date by up to 100 days.
At East City Annex near downtown which serves 65,000 customers, auditors took pictures of the more than 5,000 undelivered letters that had been stuffed in boxes and not reported. Management there stated they had been short-staffed due to COVID-related leave.
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At the Lewis Center Main Office which serves nearly 25,000 customers, auditors cited 1,700 packages last fall that had been inappropriately scanned. That causes real-time delivery tracking for customers to be inaccurate. Some of the misappropriate scans include non-recordings of incoming trailers and truck barcodes.
Management at each site admitted to the failures and stated they would retrain staff. Full audits on each site along with the Columbus processing and distribution center have been announced for April.
