Postal Service computer glitch leads to $103 million in overpayments

The Postal Service has asked its inspector general to investigate a computer glitch that caused 41,000 employees to receive too much money in their paychecks this week.

"We have taken it upon ourselves to ask the inspector general to look into it," said Gerry McKiernan, a spokesman for the Postal Service.

As a result of the error, the Postal Service sent out $103 million more than it should have, an average mistake of $2,500 for each employee. McKiernan said postal officials are asking the inspector general to develop ways to prevent the mistake from occurring again.

The problem reportedly originated when the agency attempted to send bonuses to a select group of employees.

"The computer misread the instruction that it was given," McKiernan said.

Postal employees who receive an overpayment are being asked to write personal checks to the Postal Service to refund the money. McKiernan said that reissuing checks or docking future pay would be too difficult for employees who need to use the money in the near future or adhere to strict budgets.

"There's no reason to disrupt their lives," he said. "We're asking them to do some simple subtraction."

The Postal Service expects the reimbursement process to run smoothly, although McKiernan acknowledged that with 41,000 employees submitting personal checks, "there will be a few blips."

Officials also are closely monitoring the next round of checks to ensure that the problem does not happen again.

"Well, there are future steps" to prevent another overpayment, McKiernan said. "I think, given the procedures, that a recurrence of this would be extremely unlikely."