GAO: Postal Service Did Not Overpay CSRS Account

A new report throws a wrench into the Postal Service's long-standing contention that it has paid too much for employee retirement benefits and could use that money to return to profitability.

The Government Accountability Office report says calculations of how much the Postal Service owes for employee benefits under Civil Service Retirement System have been made correctly.
 
Calculations made by actuaries contracted by both the Postal Service's inspector general and the independent Postal Regulatory Commission estimated that the Office of Personnel Management overcharged the Postal Service by $50 billion-to-$85 billion for CSRS benefits since the 1970s.
 
The GAO report says the term "overpayments" is misleading because it "can imply an error of some type-mathematical, actuarial or accounting. We have not found evidence of error of these types."
 
If the government returned that money to the Postal Service, it would "increase the federal government's current and future unfunded pension liability by an estimated $56 billion to $85 billion," the report said. "This liability would then be funded by the federal government using tax revenue, borrowing or both."

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