Hunter tried to get an interview with Postmaster General William Henderson to discuss the auditors' findings, but Henderson would not talk to ABCNEWS.
"The postmaster is highly accountable," said USPS Senior Vice President Deborah Willhite. "He's just simply not doing an interview with you." Postal officials say the Postal Service is a $65 billion business. Waste, and abuse are a small fraction of that total budget, they say.
Meanwhile, Americans are paying more to have their mail delivered. The Postal Service recently boosted the price of stamps by a penny, to 34 cents. Now it seeks another increase that would raise stamp prices anywhere from 3 to 5 cents. And the agency is planning to study how much it could save by ending Saturday service.
Over the past four years, government auditors have discovered that more than $1.4 billion have been wasted because of mismanagement, abuse and fraud. While the service was raising rates for first-class mail, they discovered, some managers were treating themselves to a variety of perks and bloated benefits.
Being a postal employee, it bothers me to read about things like this. We sure don't see things like this in the rural post office I work at. And not to minimize what's wrong with the post office, $1.4 billion is spare change compared to what the education departments can't account for. If we aren't getting screwed in one direction, we're getting it in the other!