Pentagon hopes fewer than 2,000 soldiers will have to repay bonuses

The Pentagon told members of Congress on Wednesday that it hoped to whittle down the number of California National Guard soldiers asked to repay bonuses from 17,000 to fewer than 2,000.

“It is my hope that by the end of the year, we will have something between 1,000 and 2,000 cases total out of the universe of 17,000 that are subject to review,” Peter Levine, performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told members of the House Armed Services Committee.

{mosads}The steep reduction comes after a Los Angeles Times report revealed in October that the Pentagon was trying to claw back bonuses that tens of thousands of soldiers were paid a decade ago to enlist when troops were badly needed to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The California National Guard had conducted an audit that showed that more than 9,000 soldiers were paid bonuses erroneously, and the Times report revealed the troops were being aggressively pursued by debt collectors and threatened with tax liens, interest charges and wage garnishments.

However, Guard officials have acknowledged that only a small minority of cases — about 1,100 — were found to have stemmed from fraud, while the majority involved paperwork errors, missing signatures or documents, or other circumstances.

Rep. Paul Cook (R-Calif.) blasted the California National Guard for “nitpicking” over whether troops were qualified for the bonuses.

“We betrayed the trust of the troops, and there’s no excuse for that,” he said.

The Adjutant General for the California National Guard Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin, who also testified at the hearing, acknowledged that the Guard found a 91 percent error rate in its paperwork during that time.

He cited lack of oversight, training and manpower for the mistakes.

Pentagon officials have said the issue of erroneous payments has affected every state, but have not provided the numbers of how many that could be.

Lawmakers demanded to know why the National Guard did not make the clawbacks a priority in its communications with Congress, despite the financial stress they are causing many soldiers.

Baldwin said he established a center to help soldiers adjudicate their claims, and even though the clawbacks began in 2012, it wasn’t until 2014 that they realized how much time adjudication was taking.

He said the Guard had sought help from Congress in 2014 in its yearly priorities list sent to Congress, but it “fell off” the list in following years because of cost concerns and because it was a “tough sequestration year,” in reference to cuts the Pentagon was facing.

“I regret not including it,” Baldwin said. “We felt that we had asked and were not able to take that ball across the goal line.”

“Ultimately it’s my list, and I take responsibility for the list,” he added.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has suspended all claw backs and has tasked Levine to develop a process to resolve the issue by July 2017.

Congress has also included provisions in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that would codify that process into law, and shift the burden on the Pentagon to prove the soldier committed wrongdoing in accepting the bonuses.

Levine also accepted some blame on behalf of the Pentagon, for not taking action sooner.

“That’s on us. We missed it,” he said. “I’m confident that we have the authorities to clean up this issue.” 

– Updated at 11:24 a.m.