The US Post Office is the third largest employer of citizens in the country employing over 500,000 people and deploying over 200,000 vehicles nationwide. Despite the United States Post Office having an annual budget of $65 billion in tax-payer provided money, it lost $16 billion in 2012. It spends approximately $12 billion per year on what it refers to as procurement, which are goods and services (trucks, planes and support) to keep their services running. The government's own Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that 5% of all procurement dollars are fraudulent, indicating that $600 million-- an amount lost annually-- are likely fraudulent in this one line item of the USPS spending budget. When a whistleblower stops a crime, they are not just rewarded from the money saved by the government for the single year of the crime, but across a broad stretch of time. So the rewards on cases for stopping the fraud during these years can total hundreds of millions of dollars.
Types of Postal Fraud
- Process fraud, where specific processes have been altered and are not in accordance with federal or state mandates, allowing the Post Office to short change citizens in services and alllowing the Post Office to circumvent clear regulations. For example, extending times or skipping services for the benefit of employees at the cost of the citizen taxpayers and customers.
- Cost avoidances, for example, individuals are skipping processes for convenience or cost in order to benefit the organization at the expense of the paying postal customer. Over weeks or years, these costs can amount to significant monetary losses for citizens and the organizations they are intended to serve.
- Utilizing procurement dollars for inappropriate uses - i.e. not efficiently and effectively using budgeted procurement dollars in a manner to maximize their use on behalf of the organization. Negligently or willfully applying them in areas not intended for their proper use.
- Not disclosing conflicts of interest among family or related interested parties, so as to conflict with the optimal use of taxpayer money.
- Misusing assets of the postal service, perhaps for personal or other inappropriate uses that are not directed towards US Post Office's purposes or responsiblities.
- Contract mismanagement, where postal leaders are knowingly allowing contractors to receive, earn and enjoy benefits that are not optimized for the benefit of the post office and its customers. Contracts are awarded from time to time, to those who formerly were a part of the organization itself; knowingly providing benefits to these relationships beyond what the market would bear for the costs of these services would be fraud, offering roles that have not been solicited to the broader market; as nearly all government opportunities are required to be offered to all citizens with no favoritism towards past or current employees of the organization.
- Known waste, in other words, when the Post Office knows it is wasting citizen money but simply allows it to keep going due to inconvenience, negligence or laziness. This can be rewarded under the False Claims Act, especially if the fraudulent or wasteful aspect is well documented as a known issue. Examples of such waste could include the failure to centralize unprofitable facilities, which are kept rolling for fiscally irresponsible reasons; overpaying for facilities, transportation equipment, or contractor payments when lower cost alternatives exist.
Be Rewarded for Stopping Postal Fraud
These are just a few representative examples and countless areas exist within the US Postal Service where fraud can occur. Stopping postal fraud and waste of tax-payer money is everyone's responsibility. Every dollar you save the government allows it to be applied appropriately to help our neighbors and protect our nation for future generations. If you have knowledge of deception within our postal system by a mail carrier, a supplier, a mail handler, a mail processor, a window clerk, a clerk typist, a mail truck driver or a business partner like Federal Express or UPS - perhaps even you yourself have been pressured into slowing mail to aleviate work responsibilities or refused to shut down high-cost facilities so to not inconvenience government employees - your desire now to correct these activities, do the right thing and fix these crimes can be rewarded.
Speak to someone with OffRecord to assess the merits of your claim and see if they are the right partner to hold our government services like the US Post Office accountable for operating efficiently and responsibly with our citizen's hard earned tax dollars. For every dollar you save the government, the False Claims Act requires that the judge award 15% to 30% of that savings in a reward. In some cases there are maximum time frames for which a crime can be reported; therefore, it is important for you to take action sooner rafher than later.
