USPS Watchdog Finds Vetting Gaps Despite Screening Improvements
A U.S. Postal Service watchdog audit found that recent employee-screening controls improved after 2023, but unresolved gaps remain in background investigations, rehires and discipline after criminal conduct.
The audit, issued July 28, 2026, by the USPS Office of Inspector General, examined whether the Postal Service properly granted and documented background clearances. The report concerns the reliability of hiring and personnel controls—not a finding that mail was compromised, services were shut down or the workforce was broadly involved in misconduct.
Screening records improved after 2023
The OIG reviewed a random sample of 210 employees hired during fiscal years 2023 through 2025. It found completed and documented background screenings in the electronic personnel files of 202 employees, or 96 percent.
The eight exceptions were employees hired before the Postal Service fully implemented process improvements in November 2023. In seven cases, a Certificate of Completion was missing from the personnel file. In one case, the OIG found that no National Agency Check with Inquiries, or NACI, had been conducted.
A missing Certificate of Completion does not by itself prove that a background investigation never occurred. The audit said the seven employees had NACI investigations documented in the Postal Inspection Service’s security-clearance tracking system, even though the certificates were not maintained in their personnel files.
Criminal-conduct cases exposed additional gaps
The OIG separately examined 166 employees hired after the Postal Service’s NACI requirement took effect in August 2016. The group consisted of 115 employees from a random sample of OIG investigations and 51 employees from a judgmental sample of Postal Inspection Service investigations.
Among those 166 employees, 48, or 29 percent, did not have a Certificate of Completion in their electronic personnel files, although a NACI investigation was documented in the Inspection Service’s tracking system.
Six employees, or 4 percent, had no recorded NACI investigation. USPS told the OIG that five of those six had undergone a pre-employment criminal background check but not a NACI; one had no background check and was no longer employed. The OIG said USPS did not provide evidence of those five checks or final adjudication results showing whether the employees were suitable for employment.
The audit also found five employees who received unfavorable background-investigation results but were still hired. Two were later terminated for reasons unrelated to the unfavorable investigation—one for misconduct and one for mail theft. The other three were still employed as of May 2026. The report did not conclude that every one of those hires violated policy or that every employee with an unfavorable result was unsuitable for employment.
In one additional case, an employee resigned while under an active OIG criminal investigation and was rehired at another Postal Service facility within 90 days. Because a new background investigation is not required for some rehires within that period, the employee returned without the investigation annotation being reviewed, according to the audit.
Eleven employees remained employed after criminal conduct
The OIG also found that 11 of 184 employees investigated by its Office of Investigations remained employed after engaging in criminal conduct related to mail theft, narcotics, health care claimant fraud or general crimes. That sample included employees hired before the NACI requirement was implemented in August 2016.
The finding concerns continued employment after an investigation and does not necessarily mean those employees were engaged in current misconduct. The OIG said management did not always issue discipline promptly or document why an employee who committed a criminal offense was retained.
For customers and taxpayers, the practical issue is control reliability. Complete screening records, rehire checks and documented disciplinary decisions help the Postal Service determine whether personnel decisions follow its rules and help managers explain those decisions when employees move between facilities.
USPS accepted three recommendations
The OIG issued four recommendations. USPS agreed with recommendations to upload missing Certificates of Completion, create a process to check whether rehire applicants are under active criminal investigation, and ensure criminal-conduct documentation reaches the appropriate personnel while disciplinary decisions are recorded.
USPS set target implementation dates of August 31, 2026, for the certificate-upload recommendation, June 30, 2027, for the rehire-check process and March 31, 2027, for the criminal-documentation and discipline process. The OIG said management’s responses to those three recommendations were responsive, but the recommendations remain subject to OIG confirmation before closure.
USPS disagreed with the first recommendation: identifying active employees hired since fiscal year 2016 who lack a required background investigation or have unfavorable results and developing a remediation plan. Management said the review could involve records for about 400,000 active employees and require extensive manual work.
The OIG said the Postal Service could use automated data matching rather than manually reviewing every employee. It found USPS’s response nonresponsive and said the disagreement remained unresolved.
What to watch next
The next steps are implementation of the three accepted recommendations, OIG follow-up and the audit-resolution process for the disputed historical review. The July 28 report shows that recent screening documentation improved, but it also shows why the Postal Service still faces questions about older employee records, rehire controls and consistent discipline after criminal conduct.
Sources
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