A Congressional report released this week criticized the U.S. Postal Service’s approach to solving mail-processing by delaying construction on a facility in west central California.
The report, prepared by the federal General Accounting Office, blames the 10-year saga of the stalled Antelope Valley mail-processing facility on the failure of regional and headquarters postal officials to follow proper USPS facility planning and construction procedures. The $30 million mail-processing center was to be constructed in Antelope Valley, CA, approximately 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Although Postmaster General William J. Henderson doesn’t respond directly to that allegation, he’s quoted in the GAO report as saying “over the last several years, we have revised our site selection process, including the procedures for advance site acquisition,” requiring the approval of both the postal service’s “capital investment committee and the postmaster general.”
According to the investigative arm of Congress, the USPS acquired a 25 acre tract for $6.5 million in October 1991 to remedy mail processing and delivery problems for the region’s half a million residents. The project was suspended and has never resumed.
As a result, the GAO said, millions of dollars worth of automated mail sorting equipment is sitting “unused in warehouses,” and the land has an annual interest cost $300,000.
Network
