1,176 695 205 332 129 3,247 Capital outlay; purchase of equipment... 3,282 926 Visual exhibits... 185 331 Central tabulating services.. Undistributed: Proceeds from sale of equip 22222 217 35 3,285 This is a working capital fund, available without fiscal year limitation and provides centralized services for the various bureaus in Washington and their field offices (5 U.S.C. 622a). 1. Communications services.-Consists of furnishing all communication, mail and messenger services to the various bureaus and providing office space services. 2. Central supply. Consists of purchasing and distributing supplies and equipment to the various bureaus and furnishing any laboring services required. 3. Duplicating services.-Consists of offset printing, mimeographing and mailing of publications, bulletins, and leaflets, as well as composition and layout services for the various bureaus. 4. Visual exhibits.-Consists of preparing displays for public information and furnishing photographic services to the various bureaus. 5. Accounts and payroll.-Consists of performing the necessary accounting, financial reporting, and payroll functions for the bureaus and offices. This activity was authorized for the first time in 1961 and it is planned to have this program in full operation by the end of 1963. 6. Central tabulating services.-Consists of furnishing the tabulating services in support of the accounting and payroll functions. This activity was authorized for the first time in 1961 and it is in full operation. Only the accrued leave and depreciation considered as operating costs are funded. Financing. The stocks of supplies and equipment on hand or on order June 30, 1957, were used to capitalize the fund. The fund is reimbursed in advance by the bureaus and offices for whom services are performed. Only the accrued leave considered as operating costs is 1,179 currently funded. 496 Operating results. Services rendered are charged for at rates which return in full all expenses of operations, in334 cluding reserves for accrued leave and depreciation of equipment. Revenue, Expense, and Retained Earnings (in thousands of dollars) POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT Mail volume. The budget estimates for 1964 are based on expected volume of 70.8 billion pieces of mail, compared to 68.4 billion anticipated for 1963 and 66.5 billion in 1962. The increase in mail volume for 1964 of 3.5% is equivalent to the 2.9% increase anticipated for 1963 after adjusting for the two additional workdays in 1964. The 1964 forecast includes 37.3 billion first-class letters and cards; 1.8 billion airmail items; 8.6 billion magazines, newspapers, and other publications; 19.4 billion pieces of printed matter and small parcels; and 1.1 billion zone-rate parcels, catalogs, and other fourth-class matter. Comparisons of these and other items of postal workload and related 1964 revenues with corresponding 1963 estimates and 1962 results appear in the table on page 624. Financing. Six separate limitations are enacted for the Post Office Department for operation of the postal service and other assigned responsibilities. The limitations apply to the postal fund which is financed by the deposit therein of postal revenues and other receipts and by an appropriation from the general fund of the Treasury for the balance. Only the appropriation from the general fund to the postal fund (being equal to the excess of obligational authority over revenues and other receipts) is considered new obligational authority for purposes of the Federal budget. Further, only the excess of the Department's disbursements over its receipts (exclusive of the general fund appropriation) are considered as budget expenditures. The six individual limitations control obligations incurred by the Department and are therefore requested and accounted for in terms of obligations. However, the Department's accounting system provides financial data in terms of accrued costs which distinguish between funded operating expense and capital outlay and disclose all resources on hand, unfunded liabilities, and total costs consumed in postal operations regardless of when and how funded. These data are shown in the budget schedules and reveal more clearly than obligations alone the manner in which the Department is administering all the resources entrusted to it. The accrual accounts are now also being used as the basis for measuring the overall revenue objectives of the postal service. These objectives were first expressed in law by the Postal Policy Act of 1958 (Public Law 85-426, title I) and have recently been amended by the Postal Service and Federal Employees Salary Act of 1962 (Public Law 87-793, part I). The law provides that postal rates and fees be adjusted as required to produce the amount of revenue approximately equal to the total cost of operating the Postal Establishment less the amount determined to be attributable to the performance of public services (39 U.S.C. 2302(c) (4) as amended). Public Law 87-793 also redefined and expanded the items comprising public services, and, effective 1963, made the determination of amounts a matter of accounting rather than congressional appropriation. The Department is engaged in making cost determinations of public services required by the new law. In the present budget it has been necessary to use preliminary estimates of such amounts for 1963 and 1964. Following is a summary of fund transactions and estimated revenue objectives (in millions of dollars): 1 For purposes of comparability. $63 million appropriated to the postal fund from the general fund for public services has been excluded from postal revenues. thereby including this appropriation in new obligational authority and expenditures. This appropriation was discontinued by Public Law 87-793 commencing in 1963. Transactions outside the postal fund.-Postal money orders issued and cashed, postal savings system, and deposits resulting from U.S. savings bond sales are excluded from the tables of this chapter. The postal money orders outstanding are included in the figure for checks outstanding for the Government in Table 5 of the Budget, and a corresponding sum is included in Treasury cash. Balances for the postal savings system and savings bond sales are included in Part II of this document. 623 |