The "bonus" in question were set up in place of cost of living and longevity payments which are normal in the rest of the federal government. In addition, the USPS did not have to pay federal retirement contributions for these payments as it did other base income. No more money was paid to employees than would have been paid if they'd been under the federal employee pay system.
Karla Corcoran (the OIG) sat down with Senator Grassley and torpedoed the USPS supervisory and technical personnel "bonus" system. Grassley then turned on Corcoran and ran her out of town, and many of us wonder why he did that since he'd so firmly embraced her earlier.
The Board of Governors that appointed Karla to her job was dominated by superannuated far leftwing Democratic party hacks. Some of them are still there. No one knows if Karla was particularly "liberal", but she certainly demonstrated that she understood how to develop a cult of personality and a fascist-type management structure.
The new IG, Mr. Williams, has his work cut out for him. He's going to have to re-institute democratic norms in the OIG culture, then he can get around to whacking the folks without credentials.
He might well get an early start on identifying regular USPS postal managers who are as deficient in credentials as are the ones Karla promoted. Then there are the people with degrees from diploma mills. Frankly no one in the USPS has been promoted on the basis of merit, or in accordance with the published job standards, since 1983.
I'm beginning to think the best thing to do is just put the whole thing, lock, stock and barrel, on the market. It's existence as a government agency does nothing but attract crooks and incompetents.