Ombudsmen Contract – ARNG Pay Support

During 2003, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to determine if controls used to pay mobilized Army National Guard (ARNG) personnel provided assurance that soldier pay was accurate and timely.  GAO reported that existing processes and controls were so cumbersome and complex that neither DoD nor any mobilized ARNG soldier could be reasonably assured of timely and accurate payroll payments.  Ninety five percent of all mobilized soldiers had pay related problems.

Process deficiencies and unclear procedural requirements - Complex, cumbersome processes developed in piecemeal fashion over many years caused many breakdowns in controls.  Existing guidance was out of date.  Many USPFO staffs were unclear with respect to processing orders, amending orders, stopping active duty orders, and most problems relating to medical orders.

Organizational responsibilities were not clear – Existing policies and procedures were vague with respect to organizational responsibilities.  State pay section staffs were confused without a lack of clear guidance as mobilized soldiers moved from state status to active status and then back to state status.  DFAS-IN guidance only stated that supporting USPFO sections will be responsible.   Existing DoD and Army regulations and guidance was outdated and often conflicted with current legislation and regulations.

Insufficient numbers of military pay processing personnel – GAO found that there were insufficient personnel allocated to pay processing.  Also they were inadequately trained and few individuals were knowledgeable about the various aspects of the existing pay eligibility and payroll processing requirements.  Universally most staffs provided poor customer service.  All USPFO pay sections were operating at less than authorized staffing levels and retention was a major problem as these positions were at a lower pay grade level.

Customer service issues – ARNG families were not informed at the beginning of the mobilization process about pay and allowances they would receive while on active duty.  Staffs were also confused as to whom should serve mobilized soldiers with pay problems.

System issues – nonintegrated pay systems; limitations in system processing capabilities and ineffective system audit and edit procedures.

In 2004, the DARNG was appointed by the Government Reform Subcommittee to act as the Ombudsman for all ARNG pay problems.  The DARNG could not address the system issues (DoD and HQDA levels) however he did address the human capitol shortages with the establishment of the Ombudsmen contract.  Since the establishment of this contract, no senior leader in the ARNG has had to readdress the committee on pay related problems.

MPSC has employed 180 persons with budgeting, accounting, payroll, and other USPFO core functional area expertise to address all aspects of pay related issues caused by the issues identified above.  Our employees are located in both DFAS Indiana and in all state USPFO locations.  Since the beginning of the contract, we have corrected between 20 to 40 thousand pay related problems each month!  MPSC employees now assist in all aspects of the mobilization process:  pre; mob; and, de-mobilization as different pay problems are corrected during each phase of mobilization.   This is a true success story for all our deployed soldiers and their families.