The Pentagon has confirmed that more than 17,000 members of the California National Guard will not have to pay back bonuses they should never have received in the first place.
More than $190 million in enlistment bonuses were wrongly handed out to members of the California National Guard from 2004 to 2010 at a time when the military was trying desperately to draw in more manpower for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since news of initial attempts to recoup the bonuses broke, the Pentagon backed down and promised to make amends. Now, that amends has come in the form of a full release of debt for these guardsmen, The Los Angeles Times reports.
In 2016, members of Congress successfully persuaded the Pentagon to forgive the bonus debts of these soldiers, unless the soldier knew in advance that he was definitely not eligible to receive the bonus.
As such, the Pentagon determined in a July 31 report sent to the House Committee on Armed Services that 17,092 soldiers won’t owe bonus repayment at all out of a total of 17,485.
“I am pleased that an overwhelming majority of the service members affected by the California National Guard’s bonus clawback will be able to get their bonuses back,” Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said in a statement. “These enlistment bonuses and other benefits were accepted in good faith and were given in exchange for serving the nation.”
Before news broke of bonus clawbacks, the California Guard aggressively went after troops for repayment, using tax liens and wage garnishments to make sure bonuses were returned. From 2004 to 2015, the California National Guard Master granted Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe the authority to issue bonuses, and she used virtually no controls in handing them out. While Jaffe said higher-ups pressured her to dole out bonuses to meet reenlistment goals, she nevertheless pleaded guilty in 2011 to approving payments. She served 30 months in prison.
The Los Angeles Times first broke the story of bonus clawbacks in October 2016.
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