DS-AR-99-002 Audit of the USPS Welcome Kit Program

PERFORMANCE AUDIT OF THE USPS WELCOME KIT PROGRAM September 20, 1999 NICHOLAS F. BARRANCA VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS PLANNING SUBJECT: Audit of the USPS Welcome Kit Program (Audit Report Number DS-AR-99-002) This report presents the results of our review of the United States Postal Service National Change of Address – Welcome Kit Program (Project Number 99PA002DS000). Grant Thornton LLP was engaged to conduct the audit on the behalf of the Office of Inspector General. This is the second of two reports responding to a congressional request to assess the industry implications of including advertisements in the Welcome Kits. The audit revealed that including advertisements in the Welcome Kits does not impact the advertising industry. The audit disclosed that although it appears that the one mailer has access to information from the USPS that is not available to other bulk mailers, other bulk mailers (i.e., licensees) have access to the same information for the purpose of updating existing address lists. Further, the audit disclosed that there was hard evidence that two of the three objectives of the Welcome Kit program, to reduce costs and increase revenues, were being met. However, there was no evidence to support a conclusion that customer satisfaction had improved. We recommended that USPS management include questions related to the Welcome Kit program in their customer satisfaction surveys. Management agreed to the recommendation. We ...