Audit: Millions wasted sending mail overseas

[unhappycamper]

Audit: Millions wasted sending mail overseas
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Sep 10, 2008 6:46:35 EDT

Millions of Air Force dollars were wasted sending mail-order catalogs and other bulk mail on commercial cargo flights to overseas airmen, an investigation of Air Force mail operations discovered.

The Air Force Audit Agency found that 77 percent of bulk mail shipped to APO addresses at four overseas bases was sent by commercial air instead of the less expensive space-available shipping required by Air Force regulations.

The mail shipments checked in September 2007 went to RAF Mildenhall, England; Ramstein Air Base, Germany; Incirlik Air Base, Turkey; and Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany. The audit report was issued in July and obtained by Air Force Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The annual bill to fly the bulk mail was estimated at $747,000. Auditors did not look at other bases but said the total cost for all overseas bases is likely in the millions.

Once the mail arrived at the overseas bases, more than one-third of the catalogs, brochures, credit card applications and other items could not be delivered because the airmen to whom they were addressed had moved.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/09/airforce_postal_waste_090908w/%2e