WASHINGTON — Stolen electric vehicle charging station equipment and office thefts at the U.S. Postal Service are troubling signs for agency watchdogs as the Postal Service begins moving toward electrifying its delivery fleet.
Concern about the thefts and the ability of the Postal Service to protect its assets appears in a new audit report published by the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).
“We found that management controls over the storage of charging stations … were not effective,” according to the OIG. “Specifically, facility management did not employ necessary physical safety measures designed to protect and deter the theft of Postal Service assets.”
Lax safeguards at a facility in Topeka, Kansas, led to two thefts valued at approximately $59,700 for stolen information technology assets such as computer monitors, printers and docking stations, along with $7,700 worth of stolen charging station equipment.