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2012 Report on Form 10-K United States Postal Service- 76 -
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service
We have audited the United States Postal Service’ s internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2012,
based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring
Organizations of the Treadway Commission (the COSO criteria). The United States Postal Service’ s management is
responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of
internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’ s Report on Internal Control Over
Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the United States Postal Service’ s internal control over
financial reporting based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United
States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective
internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an
understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and
evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other
procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our
opinion.
A company’ s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the
reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with
generally accepted accounting principles. A company’ s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies
and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the
transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded
as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and
that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and
directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized
acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’ s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting, including the possibility of collusion or
improper management override of controls, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or detected
on a timely basis. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls
may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures
may deteriorate.
In our opinion, the United States Postal Service maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over
financial reporting as of September 30, 2012, based on COSO criteria.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United
States), the balance sheets of the United States Postal Service as of September 30, 2012 and 2011, and the related
statements of operations, changes in net deficiency, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended
September 30, 2012 of the United States Postal Service and our report dated November 15, 2012 expressed an unqualified
opinion thereon that included an explanatory paragraph regarding the United States Postal Service’ s ability to generate
sufficient cash flow to meet all of its financial obligations throughout their fiscal year ending September 30, 2013.
/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
McLean, Virginia
November 15, 2012