The Board of Governors delegates to Postal Service managers (from the field level through the postmaster general) the authority to approve capital and major expense plans, programs, and projects, and to commit funds to carry out these initiatives. Delegating to various management levels allows greater control of local projects while ensuring that senior management can concentrate on strategic issues and retain approval authority over the most significant investment projects. Finance periodically updates the Delegations of Approval Authority chart which shows, by type and size of project, the approval thresholds for capital and expense items.
For purposes of approval authority, projects undertaken as part of a unitary plan (either for contemporaneous or sequential development, in one or several locations) are considered to be a single project.