USPS Revises Accounting Procedures for Retirement Fund
The U.S. Postal Service removed its supplemental liability to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund from its 2003 third quarter balance sheet in a bookkeeping change that will not affect USPS income, the agency said this week."The change has no impact on our income statement or our statement of cash flow and does not alter the postal service's accounting policy for pension costs," said USPS chief financial officer Richard J. Strasser Jr. "This change acknowledges the fact that any supplemental liability is subject to recalculation by the Office of Personnel Management on an annual basis, with up to 12 months allowed to complete the estimate."
The change, which eliminates both the $5.8 billion asset and liability on the balance sheet, was prompted by the Postal Civil Service Retirement System Funding Reform Act of 2003.
Signed into law in April, it changed the way the postal service funds the CSRDF and gave OPM 12 months after the end of each fiscal year to determine supplemental liabilities. The postal service will now disclose CSRDF funding in financial statements as the postal service's liability to the fund becomes known based on OPM recalculations.
The 2003 third quarter ran from Feb. 22 to May 16.
