The Pentagon moved Wednesday to quell a rising tide of outrage over its demands for the repayment of enlistments bonus improperly given to members of the California National Guard by pledging to institute an appeals process that is streamlined and weighted in favor of the aggrieved troops. But not everyone is being waived.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter has ordered an immediate halt to the collection effort, but stopped short of issuing a blanket amnesty, for the thousands of troops who received the bonuses in error, often through no fault of their own.
“While some soldiers knew or should have known they were ineligible for benefits they were claiming, many others did not,” Carter said in a statement issued from Brussels, where he is attending a NATO defense ministerial.
The Pentagon has identified about 2,000 troops, from a pool of 9,700 potential bonus recipients, who have repaid, or are currently repaying the erroneous payments.
“One thing that is clear to us is that each case is going to need to be evaluated on its own merits,” said Peter Levine, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. “This is not something where we think we can do a blanket approach to everybody.”
The appeals procedure and criteria for debt forgiveness have not yet been established, but Levine said it would “lean heavily in favor of the soldier.”
“The goal is to put together a process that is streamlined, that is centralized, that provides one-stop shopping for service members who are affected by this, and that gives them a fair outcome and does it on an expedited basis,” said Gordon Trowbridge, a Pentagon spokesman.
Levine said the Pentagon will have the authority to make refunds and take other actions to make service members who suffered financial hardship whole again.
“If we determine the recoupment was unjustified, then there will be a process that allows the reversal of that, and the recovery of those monies by the troops,” Levine said.
Asked for an example of when a refund would not be given, Levine cited the case of a soldier who accepted the bonus but did not serve out the term of his or her reenlistment.
While some in Congress are talking about possible changes to safeguard troops from this kind of collection action in the future, Levine said the department is not seeking nor does it need new legislative authority to resolve the cases.
And the Pentagon says while there have been a handful of similar cases in other states, the primary problem was in the California National Guard where there was criminal wrongdoing, and illegal activity associated with the bogus bonus awards.
In California, an Army audit determined that roughly 14,000 Guard members received enlistment bonuses or educational assistance. Of that number, about 4,000 were found to be legitimate. The other roughly 10,000 were questionable, and of that number just under 2,000 were asked for the money back.
Outside of California, the cases number in the dozens, officials said.
“We will provide for a process that puts as little burden as possible on any soldier who received an improper payment through no fault of his or her own,” Carter said in his statement. “At the same time, it will respect our important obligation to the taxpayer.”
Carter pledged to have all cases resolved by July of next year.
