Navy and Marine Corps' Use of the Aviation Officer Continuation Bonus Program

Comments were presented on the implementation of the Aviation Officer Continuation Bonus Program. GAO found that the Navy and Marine Corps are not judiciously managing the program. Both services continue to pay bonuses to aviators who are not in aviation specialties where there are critical shortages or who are beyond the point in their career where retention historically has been a problem. GAO believes that, as a result of the Navy and Marine Corps' across-the-board approach to managing this program, millions of dollars were unnecessarily spent. In the opinion of GAO, the aviation bonus authority should be extended because the Navy has serious pilot shortages. However, any extension of the authority should be contingent on the Navy and Marine Corps developing new implementing instructions which would: (1) pay bonuses only on verification of need; (2) be targeted to the specific aviation specialities where critical shortages of aviators exist; and (3) selectively apply at the critical retention points, early enough in the aviator's career, so that the payment of a bonus could reasonably be expected to influence retention behavior. This would require the Navy and Marine Corps to specifically analyze each of the several aviation specialties to determine whether the critical shortages exist and, if so, at which career points retention has been and is a problem. GAO believes the services should also determine whether the same bonus amounts are needed for each shortage and retention problem or whether separate payment schedules would be more cost effective.