Most of us already know that the United States Postal Service is in grave financial trouble due to people communicating more through email, and it is no surprise that runaway expenses are also contributing to their huge losses. The agency lost an estimated $16 billion last year, and part of that was more than $1 million in over payment of expenses. An expense management software with automated controls, real-time receipt visibility, and built-in expense rules that are automatically enforced could have curtailed the majority of this abuse, helping to cut Postal Service costs.
As at other companies, both public and private, Postal Service employees improperly submitted expenses for reimbursement and misused government-issued credit cards for personal use. Some Postal Service expense fraud was attributed to executives. In September, David Kosturko, a former Postal Service executive, was convicted of defrauding the agency of more than $17,000.
A more common fraudulent activity was when employees booked two airline tickets from the same destination, canceled the more expensive ticket, and took the cheaper flight. The employees then turned in expense reimbursements for the pricier flight.
Read more about how the “Cash-strapped Postal Service Was Probed for Travel Expense Waste.”
Reporting By Elvina Nawaguna; Editing by Karey Wutkowski and Mohammad Zargham
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Our choice of Chrome River EXPENSE was made in part due to the very user-friendly interface, easy configurability, and the clear commitment to impactful customer service – all aspects in which Chrome River was the clear winner. While Chrome River is not as large as some of the other vendors we considered, we found that to be a benefit and our due diligence showed that it could support us as well as any large players in the space, along with a personalized level of customer care.
We are excited to be able to enforce much more stringent compliance to our expense guidelines and significantly enhance our expense reporting and analytics. By automating these processes, we will be able to free up AP time formerly spent on manual administrative tasks, and enhance the role by being much more strategic.
