Baltimore District overpaid grievance settlement by $1.7 million because of “spreadsheet errors”
TweetFrom the USPS Office of the Inspector General:
Baltimore District officials approved disbursement of a grievance settlement for out-of-schedule pay resulting in overpayments to affected clerks of approximately $1.7 million. This occurred because the responsible manager made an error in preparing a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet that overstated out-of schedule hours. The manager applied employee pay rates to the overstated hours on the Excel spreadsheet, resulting in approximately $1.7 million in overpayments. We also determined internal controls over the settlement disbursements were not sufficient to ensure the payment amounts were accurate. As a result, although the Postal Service is seeking reimbursement, there is a risk that it will not be able to recoup all of the overpaid funds.
On October 19, 2007, the Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) settled a class-action grievance related to the Postal Service identifying clerk craft employees as “excess” in fiscal years (FY) 2006 and 2007. The settlement established specific dates for returning senior clerks to duty and resolved out-ofschedule pay for affected clerk craft employees in the Baltimore District. On October 29, 2008, the Postal Service disbursed the out-of-schedule pay.
The Postal Service uses GATS to capture grievance payments made in all districts. Grievance payments are an indicator in the OIG’s HCORM. While updating the HCORM for FY 2009, Quarter 3, we identified a negative grievance payout of $1,596,123 for the Baltimore District.
We reviewed the Baltimore District’s negative payout and determined that it represented a processing error related to a grievance settlement. The Baltimore District issued payments related to the grievance settlement totaling $2.3 million. However, the district made approximately $1.7 million of the payments in error. We discussed the error with Postal Service officials and determined a manager erred while preparing an Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet overstated out-of schedule hours and, as a result, the Postal Service overpaid 94 employees. The manager did not use internal controls, such as peer or management reviews or reasonableness tests built into the Excel spreadsheet. Implementing internal controls like those identified could prevent a similar mistake in future grievance payments.
Postal Service policy states that postmasters or installation heads are responsible for initiating the collection of debts owed to the Postal Service. The Postal Service is also required to issue demand letters to employees who are indebted. Many of the overpayments to affected employees are substantial and the employees have grieved the demand letters the Postal Service issued requesting reimbursement. If the union validates a case for financial hardship with regard to the repayment of these amounts (44 of the 94 payments exceeded $20,000), the likelihood of recovery by the Postal Service may be negatively impacted. Baltimore District officials indicated these grievances are currently at step 2 in the grievance arbitration process. As a result, the agency has recovered no monies.
