Guard pay ‘meltdown’ GAO says 94 percent of mobilized had financial woes By Rick Maze Times staff writer
The Defense Department offers no excuses for massive pay problems uncovered by a congressional watchdog agency that found 94 percent of mobilized National Guard personnel have had problems with their military pay.
“That’s not just a significant rate of error. It’s a virtual systemic meltdown,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., the House Government Reform Committee member who asked for the report. He called the situation a case of “financial friendly fire.”
Defense officials promised action. “Paying our soldiers accurately and timely is a top priority,” said an Oct. 29 letter signed by the National Guard Bureau chief, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service director and the Army comptroller.
The Nov. 13 report by the General Accounting Office, they agreed, “indicates we have not lived up to that commitment as it relates to our National Guard members.”
Appearing at the Capitol Hill news conference in which the report was released was a West Virginia Army National Guard sergeant first class who, by default, ended up serving as paymaster for his unit, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces, in Afghanistan in 2002. Every soldier in his company had “some form of pay problem,” said the NCO who asked not to be identified.
He said one soldier waited six weeks to get his first check and another had his wages wrongly garnisheed for four months. The sergeant said he had problems every month getting special pays, such as special-duty assignment pay, because it was impossible to make payments automatic.
Having to request special pays every month for every soldier created so many errors that people were constantly underpaid or overpaid, he said. “There were only two months during our yearlong deployment where everyone was paid correctly and on time.”
At the end of his unit’s deployment in January, about 10 percent of the soldiers left the Guard, “citing pay problems as part of their decision,” he said. . . .
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