MISSOURI CITY, Texas — In a newly obtained audit report, the USPS Office of Inspector General detailed a list of problems found at the South Houston Local Processing center in Missouri City that led to widespread mail delays across Houston.
In the audit, inspectors said they visited the facility from Jan. 28 to Jan. 30 and found several issues -- including a backlog of delayed mail and a lack of communication among facility management.
During the visit, they found an estimated 384,000 pieces of delayed mail at the facility. The mail was either in need of processing or waiting to be transported to another facility.
The audit revealed that the Missouri City processing center was originally opened as a temporary "peak season annex," designed to help with increased volume at the existing North Houston processing center. However, managers used an "undocumented" contingency plan to keep the facility open.
The facility is still operating as an interim processing center according to the audit, but it is expected to transition into a "traditional local processing center" by the end of the year.
Inspectors said several factors contributed to the delays, including the way in which management moved certain operations -- including sorting machines -- from North Houston to the Missouri City facility which was "not equipped" to handle the volume.
The OIG said staffing was also an issue. In one instance, a supervisor was scheduled to cover all three shifts over a 24-hour period.
The audit points to safety concerns and maintenance issues as well. At the time of their visit, inspectors said the Missouri City facility did not have enough power and had to use generators to keep machines running. There was also a lack of running water and employees had to use portable bathrooms outside for a time.
Inspectors also found that USPS did not communicate its plans to open the facility to stakeholders including the media, despite "significant media coverage around delayed packages."
The OIG recommended several changes to the postal service to remediate the issues, including assessing the backlog to see if temporary staffing is necessary and developing a process to communicate and solicit feedback from local managers when developing and implementing changes to the South Houston facility as it shifts into a processing center.
When KHOU 11 reached out to USPS for a response to the audit, a spokesperson referred us to an April 5 letter already included in the report that states:
“The postal service agrees that the findings were accurate in January 2024. At the time of the OIG visit, the postal service had already implemented actions to address the conditions in South Houston. The postal service has continued to improve conditions in South Houston over the last few months.”
KHOU 11 was the first to report on the mail delays at the USPS processing center in Missouri City. Since December, we've spoken to several people who were concerned about the whereabouts of their mail, including people concerned about their medication and wedding dresses stuck at the processing center.
You can read the details of the OIG audit below: