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![handle is hein.gao/gaobaabzr0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
DOCUMERT RESUME
00668 - [A10518311
[Need for Improved Reports for Monitoring Military Bonus
?rogram]. YPCD-77-34; B-160096. March ?1, 1977. 11 pp. +
enclosures (9 pp.).
Report to Rep. Melvin Price, Chairman, House Committee on Armed
Services; by Elmer B. Staats, Comptroller General.
Issue Area: Personnel Management and Compensation (300).
Contact: Federal Personnel and Compensation Div.
Budget Function: National Defense: Military Assistance (052) ;
National Defense: Department of Defense - Military (except
procurement & contracts) (051).
Organization Concerned: Department of Defeaise.
congressional Relevance: House Committee on Armed Services;
Senate Committee on Armed Services.
Authority: Armed Forces Enlisted Personnel Eonus Revision Act of
1974 (P.L. 93-277). H. Rept. 93-857.
As a r4ult of an earlier GAO report, the House
Committee on Armed Services (the Committee) directed the
Department of Defense (DOD) to submit semiannual reports on its
bonus programs in an effort to insure that the services wculd do
their utmost to eliminate wasteful practices and administer the
programs as intended. GAO now believes that certain changes in
the structure of these reports could improve their usefulness in
monitoring both the administration of the bonus authority and
the bonuses' effect on solving attraction and retention problems
in critical skills. Findings/Conclusions cur-ent repprt
information (format 1) on the number and skills cf members who
received bonuses is not sufficient to evaluate the bon~isesL
effect on solving attraction and retention problems in critical
skills. Information on the number and skill of bonus recipients
jerving outside their bonus skills (format 2) does not show
whether the data reported is significant in relation to the
total bonus recipients on active duty. The Ccmmittee did not
request DOD to report the number of bonus recipients who
received involuntary discharges or the amount of their unearned
bonuses. The substantial length of the current r~w-rts makes it
difficult to use them to monitor the bonuses' effect on solving
attiaction and retention problems in critical skills. Current
reporting pericds are not in concurrence with established data
collection cycles. Recommendations: Format 1 should show: the
total enlistments and reenlistments achieved in each critical
skill; the funded enlistment and reenlistment bonus gcals; and
the number and amount of all enlistment bonuseE coamitted and
reenlistment bonuses paid. Bonus program achievements should be
viewed in the light of the bonus costs. Report format 2 should
distinguish among: recipients improperly assigned and serving
outside their bonus skills; recipients reclassified due to
normal career progression; and recipients serving in approved
comparable skills. Future reports should include all recipients](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaobaabzr0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)