A New Twist on "Going Postal"

From TPM Muckraker:

One Postal Service employee used his government travel card at adult entertainment establishments more than 50 times. Another paid for an Apple computer and his mortgage. Three others purchased airfare tickets (including tickets to Spain and Italy) for family and friends.

That's all according to a Postal Service Inspector General report [PDF] issued last week on non-compliance with travel policies.

The report said that Postal Service employees "did not comply with prescribed travel policies resulting in over $600,000 in excessive travel costs for lodging and airfare in FYs 2009 and 2010." If the Postal Service took action to "curtail employee noncompliance with travel polices" it could "realize an additional $600,000 in savings over the next 2 years, or $300,000 annually."

According to the report, the Postal Service "did not cancel 2,491 credit cards issued to former employees, including 53 employees listed as deceased in employee records. At the time of our audit, there was more than $37 million in open credit associated with cards of former employees."

It's poor timing for the Postal Service, which is planning to cut about $2 billion in costs this year but still forecasts a $7 billion loss after losing a record $8.5 billion in fiscal 2010, according to the Washington Post. The Postal Service also warned this week that it is most likely going to run out of money by the end of the fiscal year.

I wrote about the latter problem at the super-ginormous bureaucracy last week. Link via TPM honcho Josh Marshall.