Executive Summary

In an era of increased public scrutiny and shrinking budgets, city, county, and state governments are under pressure to deliver services efficiently and transparently. Yet outdated vendor oversight systems expose agencies to significant risks: overpayments to ghost vendors, fraudulent timekeeping, unverified work, and wage non-compliance.

A recent review of just four U.S. cities showed over $28 million in preventable losses tied to poor vendor oversight. These losses were not just the result of fraud but of inefficiencies, manual processes, and a lack of real-time visibility, including the inability to verify service completion through photographic or video evidence.

Odin solves this problem. Built for the modern public sector, Odin delivers real-time workforce visibility, digital vendor verification, photographic and video proof of completed work, and wage assurance, ensuring that taxpayer dollars are only spent on verified, lawful, and compliant work and service delivery.

A Message to Leaders

If you're reading this, it's because you are responsible.

You already know the risks as a City Manager, Procurement Officer, Budget Director, or Compliance Leader. You've seen the waste. You've felt the frustration. And at times, you've probably wondered:

"How much money are we losing simply because we can't see what's really happening?"

Here's the truth: You are vulnerable if you don't have real-time visibility into vendor work and workforce activity.

Not because you're doing something wrong, but because your systems aren't strong enough to protect you.

And that means taxpayer dollars are exposed. Your reputation is exposed. Ultimately, you are left responsible for waste, fraud, and abuse; even if you never saw it coming.

"Waste or fraud…the effect is the same. Taxpayer dollars lost. Trust eroded. Responsibility lands on you."

Odin changes that.

The Problem with Traditional Oversight

Government agencies contract vendors to perform critical services: janitorial, landscaping, building maintenance, IT, transportation, security, street repairs, electrical work, traffic signal maintenance, and water line repairs. However, oversight is often based on:

• Paper logs and sign-in sheets
• Spreadsheets and manual tracking
• Infrequent, after-the-fact audits

These outdated systems lead to:

• Payments to duplicate or inactive vendors
• Invoices for unverified work
• Ghostworkers and padded timecards
• Unqualified workers on-site without proper credentials
• Wage theft and noncompliance in subcontractor tiers

"There’s a fine line between waste and fraud. Whether it’s intentional or not, taxpayers pay the price."

Another layer of the challenge? You’re likely stuck with legacy systems to manage these vendors.

Replacing outdated platforms is expensive, slow, and buried in procurement red tape. That’s a reality every public agency lives with. But the alternative—inaction—is costlier.

That’s why Odin doesn’t replace your legacy system. It holds it accountable.

The Odin leadership team understands this challenge firsthand. One of our team members previously oversaw billions of dollars in vendor contracts for the State of Texas, contracts distributed across all 254 counties. The scale created an enormous visibility gap. Without real-time updates or workforce verification, there was no easy way to confirm whether work was performed as invoiced. Yet, the responsibility to authorize payment still rests with the state.

"Replacing the system was expensive and seemed like an insurmountable task. I can't say for certain what was happening on the ground in every instance, but I often suspected there were issues we simply couldn't see, gaps in accountability that we had no way of closing. If I’d had access to a system like Odin, with real-time work assurance, I believe we could have significantly reduced the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse, and brought a greater level of confidence to every dollar spent."

Odin was built to solve this exact problem. Not by replacing your system but by sitting alongside it and verifying every hour billed and every service performed.

Odin's Solution

Odin is an integrated platform designed to modernize vendor compliance and workforce accountability. It offers:

1. Real-Time Vendor Verification

• Ensures only active, approved vendors remain in your system
• Flags duplicate or suspicious entries automatically

2. Workforce Visibility

• Geo-tagged, time-stamped proof of service
• Photographic and video documentation of completed work, tied directly to vendor records
• Real-time tracking of on-site workforce activity
• Credential tracking with expiration alerts

3. Wage Assurance

• Tracks clock-in/out data for every worker
• Verifies wage compliance across all vendor tiers
• Prevents timecard fraud and protects vulnerable workers

4. Automated Compliance Alerts

• Sends real-time alerts before problems become payment issues
• Eliminates costly surprises during audits

5. Integration with Government Systems

• Seamlessly connects with existing procurement and finance platforms
• No disruption to current workflows

"It’s one thing for a vendor to manipulate a single system. But when two systems—Odin and your legacy platform—are working in parallel, oversight becomes exponentially stronger. What was once easy to exploit becomes nearly impossible to game."

Odin creates a layer of independent accountability that forces alignment between vendor behavior, contract terms, and real-world performance.

Real-World Impact

In a four-city review, over $28 million in avoidable losses were tied to poor compliance tracking. These losses were compounded by the inability to verify whether services were actually performed as invoiced—especially in contracts involving distributed, on-site work where visual confirmation was not available.

Examples include:

• Duplicate vendor payments due to manual database errors
• Unverified invoices processed without site-level validation or photographic evidence
• Overpaid labor hours from ghost worker logs and forged timecards

With Odin:

• 100% compliance with worker credentialing mandates across 25,000+ workers
• Another reduced onboarding time by 50%, saving weeks on labor mobilization
• A general contractor saw a 9% labor cost reduction due to verified workforce reporting

Why Now?

The public's expectation of transparency and accountability in government spending has never been higher. Across the country, efficiency studies, independent audits, and media investigations consistently expose the same vulnerabilities: poor vendor oversight, limited workforce visibility, and outdated systems that cannot keep pace with modern risks.

City managers, procurement teams, and compliance officers are feeling the pressure—not just to catch problems after the fact, but to prevent them altogether. Voters, taxpayers, and oversight boards now expect proactive governance, real-time accountability, and defensible decision-making about every public dollar spent.

Odin meets this moment by providing a practical, powerful solution to modernize oversight—without the cost and disruption of ripping out existing procurement or payment systems.

With Odin, accountability is built into your systems; not added after the fact.

Conclusion: It’s Time to Reinvent Vendor Oversight

Manual audits, unverified invoices, and siloed systems have run their course. Odin equips your team to:

• Verify vendors
• Validate services
• Ensure compliance
• Protect taxpayer dollars

You are responsible for how your city's money is spent.

Odin gives you the tools to protect it, without requiring you to replace everything you already use.

**Schedule a demo today at **www.useodin.comE