Retention Bonuses

The Selective Reenlistment Bonus Program was created 30 years ago to help the military retain highly skilled service members. However, GAO found that in 1994, the Defense Department (DOD) paid about $64 million in retention bonuses to individuals who worked in job categories in which positions were filled or who had been paid incentives to leave. Military officials defended their management of the retention and separation incentive programs, asserting that each is targeted at different segments of the force, that retention and separation incentives went to personnel in different grades and year groups, and that payment of separation incentives did not mean that they were satisfied with manning levels. GAO believes that if a skill is experiencing shortages that warrant the payment of retention incentives, it is not prudent to pay incentives to others with those same skills to leave the service. The Office of the Secretary of Defense is not providing adequate direction and oversight of the programs.

GAO found that: (1) the services have awarded some SRB to personnel in high-skill categories where a high percentage of the required positions are already filled; (2) in fiscal year (FY) 1994, 43 percent of the new SRB contracts went to service members in skill categories where 90 percent or more of the required positions were filled and in which many higher skill level service members were paid incentives to leave the service; (3) each SRB program is targeted to different segments of the military, including personnel in different grades and year groups; and (4) the Office of the Secretary of Defense has not provided adequate oversight of the SRB program, having performed only one skills review in FY 1991.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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