Why systems to control expenses can waste expenses

Recently I did some work for a government client where they had to book travel for me, as opposed to me booking my own travel and billing them back.  Little did I know I was to receive a big lesson in how feedback can impact organizational performance - for the worse.

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The first thing that I had to do was contact a person to get some file numbers for the travel.  She entered my information and produced my specific numbers that I had to use.  Then I called the travel agent to book the travel.  The agent had to confirm the file numbers I was given, and then looked for flights.  I selected what seemed to be a good flight, and then the agent had to check if there were cheaper flights.  She found some and booked me on them even though the times were not as good as the original flight.  Then she had to re-check if there were cheaper flights that had miraculously appeared in the five minutes since she'd checked.  Then, for reasons I couldn't understand, she had to recheck two or three more times if there were cheaper flights before she could process and book me.  Then, they were not able to e-mail me a confirmation and itinerary - they had to fax it to me.  And when they came, I got 14 faxes.

There were other hoops to jump through, but the bottom line is that it took half an hour to do what I could have done in 5 minutes online.  Yes, the first flight I picked was not the cheapest because I didn't want to waste time sitting in an airport all day.  I honour my clients' wishes and book the lowest fares for them within such parameters.  Yes, it may have been $50 more.  But let's look at the additional costs:

• The time for the public servant who generated my file numbers
• The time for the travel agent to search and research for cheaper flights (they don't give that service to the government for free)
• My wasted time on the phone (yes, I'm not in the government, but public servants have to go through the same process, wasting their time
• My wasted time in airports (again, public servants wasted paid time in most cases)
• My wasted time figuring out 14 needless faxes plus material costs of the paper
• Time for the original clerk to figure out and file the paperwork from the 14 faxes

Now, I don't know the details of these costs, but I'm pretty sure they add up to waaaaaaay more than the extra $50 I would have spent doing it myself.

So why is this type of situation typical for any bureaucratic system, not just government systems?

In the systems approach that I use in diagnosing organizational problems, one of the key elements is feedback.  One thing that governments, in particular, are sensitive about is criticism on excess expenses.  If people spend too much on travel or food or entertainment and the media gets ahold of it, there's ka-ka everywhere.  And that's why government bought this travel service and requires them to go through all those checks - over and over again.

And I've used the same travel agency for another (private sector) client, and we were finished within 5-10 minutes for a much more complex travel agenda.  The checking and rechecking is not the basic service - it's something government pays extra for.

In trying to avoid negative publicity, they are paying far, far more than would be abused to protect themselves - this is a cover-your-butt policy.  However, these expenses are hidden.  It's really hard for the media or anyone to find these costs because they're hidden in corporate expenses.  There is no line showing how much it costs to check an re-check every single booking that's made or all the work the clerks do to process this. 

Ironically, there are probably very few people who actually abused the situation and booked expensive travel.  However, like most bureaucratic policies, you are punishing the majority for the sins of the few and spending far more money than the original wastage.

So what feedback counts in  your organization?  What feedback systems shape the behaviour you want - and the behaviour you don't want?