Even as the Army faces shrinking budgets, an audit shows it
paid out $16 million in paychecks over a 2 ½-year period to soldiers
designated as AWOL or as deserters, the second time since 2006 the
military has been dinged for the error.
A memo issued by
Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Ky., found that the Army lacked
sufficient controls to enforce policies and procedures for reporting
deserters and absentee soldiers to cut off their pay and benefits
immediately. The oversight was blamed primarily on a failure by
commanders to fill out paperwork in a timely manner.
The payments
from 2010 to 2012 represent only a fraction of the Army's nearly $44
billion projected payroll for 2013, but auditors and a watchdog group
derided the waste as government agencies grapple with the automatic
federal spending cuts known as sequestration.
"In this current
environment of scarce resources, this is unacceptable," auditors wrote
in a July memo sent by the Department of Defense across the Army,
including to the U.S. Army Deserter Information Point and Human
Resources Command.
The Defense Department says 466 service members
across all branches were listed as absent without leave or as deserters
in 2012; the agency did not have a tally specific to the Army. However,
the $16 million represents 9,000 individual direct deposit payments,
suggesting at least some of the soldiers received several paychecks
before the problem was corrected.
The audit marks the second time
in the past seven years the Army has come under scrutiny for paying
soldiers who did not report for duty when called up. The audit outlines
what steps should be taken across the Army to ensure deserters and
soldiers who are absent without leave don't get pay or benefits.
A
more narrowly focused 2006 audit by the Government Accountability
Office found the Army paid 68 soldiers about $684,000 while the soldiers
were considered deserters. That review, by Gregory D. Kutz, the
managing director of forensic audits and special investigations for the
GAO, focused on the 1004th Quartermaster Company in Greensburg, Pa.
The
audit issued in July called on Human Resources Command to establish
standards for commanders to provide status updates of AWOL soldiers and
deserters on a regular basis. The message also directs commanders
throughout the Army to follow up on all in-transit soldiers who do not
arrive on their report dates and to place a strong emphasis on the
status of absentee soldiers.
Auditors found that commanders
weren't filling out paperwork on absent soldiers in a timely manner, so
the orders to stop pay weren't being processed and absent soldiers were
still being paid. The latest audit comes as the Army, Navy, Air Force
and Marine Corps are projected to slash $52 billion from the defense
budget for the 2014 fiscal year under automatic spending cuts that
kicked in March 1.
The Army classifies a deserter as someone who
drops from the rolls of a unit after being absent without authority for
30 or more consecutive days. Soldiers who join the military of another
country, seek political asylum or live in a foreign country are also
considered deserters.
Kutz included in the audit recommendations
that the Army develop a strategy for tracking possible desertion cases
and possibly initiating criminal actions against deserters who took
unearned pay. The note in July reiterates some of Kutz's recommendations
and points to new regulations requiring stricter tracking and
processing of soldiers who don't report for duty.
"The purpose of
this message is to reinforce current policy and actions to be taken by
commanders and staff offices to alleviate the situation," the All Army
Activities memo states.
U.S. Rep. C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, who
was among four congressmen to request the 2006 audit, said he was
troubled to see the problem persist particularly in light of the current
financial and budget challenges the government faces. Ruppersberger,
D-Md., said Army leadership has assured him that corrective actions are
being taken, including efforts to recoup the money paid.
"Deserting
our military is a serious offense, and these men and women — and the
unit commanders in charge of the personnel paperwork — need to be held
accountable," Ruppersberger said. "It's also unfair to the vast majority
of troops putting their lives on the line and honorably serving our
country every day."
An Army spokesman said AWOL soldiers or
soldiers considered deserters must repay any earned benefits if they are
dismissed from the military. Refusing to do so could lead to the debt
being turned over to a collection agency. Soldiers who return to duty
may have their wages garnished to cover the debt. A Defense Department
spokesman knew of no similar audit for other branches of the military.
Sean
Kennedy, director of research for the watchdog group Citizens Against
Government Waste, said the audit results were "pretty crazy." It appears
there's little incentive to fix the problem, even though it has been
pointed out multiple times, Kennedy said.
"It's a drop in the
bucket compared to the larger Army bucket, but the GAO identified this
years ago, and it was never fixed," Kennedy said. "Before the Army cries
poor again, they should look internally for waste that can be
eliminated. This is an example of that."