T&E Fraud Linked to 5% of Employees

The vast majority of fraudulent activity on travel and expense reports can be attributed to just 5 percent of employees, according to a new report.

The report, from Oversight Systems, a provider of T&E report technology, found that 82 of fraudulent activities were committed by 5 percent of employees.

Of the 160,000 travelers studied for the report, one out of 10 had multiple policy violations on their expense reports. The report pointed out that purchases outside of airfare, hotels and car rentals are the hardest to control.

Still, problems with T&E reports were not confined to just 5 percent of employees. Oversight found that 20 percent of business travelers had at least one purchase on their expense report that was non-compliant with company policy, while 10 percent of travelers had at least one duplicate expense on their report.

“Many of our clients were surprised by the results of their own analysis,” said Oversight CEO Patrick Taylor in a statement. “While the report reveals that fraud is not a rampant problem, there are still significant cost savings for those who address potential bad behaviors lurking in their own spending programs.”