The old saying: Measure twice, cut once, can be adapted here: Verify twice, submit once. I am always surprised by Federal and Postal employees who have filed for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS to hear that a document, a submission, a Request for Reconsideration, an appeal, etc., was sent to the Office of Personnel Management by regular mail, with no manner of verification. While I have great respect for the personnel who work at the U.S. Postal Service as well as the Office of Personnel Management, such issues have nothing to do with individual competence; instead, it has to do with the recognition that all oversized agencies (do we even have to argue as to what is defined as an “oversized agency”?) have their internal mail problems — not only of sending or receiving mail, but getting it to the right person, etc. Not everyone needs to be overly “verification-sensitive” like I am, but my methodology for every document forwarded to OPM is as follows: faxed (with a print-out of a receipt showing that the fax went through), as well as an express mail or FedEx tracking number. Verify twice, submit once. The Office of Personnel Management has never won an argument with me that they “never received it.”
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
OPM Disability Retirement, Et Cetera… 