P.S. Docket No. P.S. Docket No.
Petitioner opposes Respondent's appeal.
Respondent has filed two exceptions to the Initial Decision which have been considered and are addressed hereafter. Exception One Respondent takes exception to the Administrative Judge's conclusion that the stamp stock shortage at the Norwich Post Office should be offset by the amount of overages discovered during the January 1988 audit. According to Respondent, the Administrative Judge incorrectly placed the burden to disprove the existence of any such relationship on the Postal Service. Although Respondent correctly states that Handbook F-1 requires that a relationship exist between shortages and overages before an offset may be made, the provisions of the Handbook do not require Petitioner to prove the existence of this relationship. Since the Postal Service, the claimant in this proceeding, did not take any action to determine the relationship between the shortage and overages, it is not entitled to recover the total shortage without crediting Petitioner with the existing overages.