WASHINGTON (May 20, 2016) — The Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States today released the following statement by Sgt. Maj. (ret) Frank Yoakum, the EANGUS Executive Director.
The Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States, EANGUS, believes the unwarranted and baseless investigations by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) of thousands of innocent Army National Guard Soldiers who legitimately participated in the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program (G-RAP) must stop and stop immediately.
The Recruiting Assistance Program was created in 2005 when the Army National Guard was struggling to meet its recruitment numbers due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The National Guard’s Recruiting Assistance Program would provide incentives to National Guard soldiers and civilians to act as informal recruiters, or recruiting assistants (RA). These recruiting assistants would receive a payment of $2,000 for every new recruit they referred to a recruiter and that recruit finished their initial entry training. The Army National Guard’s Strength Maintenance Division contracted for these Recruiting Assistants with Docupak, who administered the contract. The recruiting assistants were hired by Docupak as subcontractors. After the program was put in place, the National Guard began to meet its recruiting goals and the Active Army and Army Reserve began their own similar programs. All components of the Army implemented a form of RAP for various periods of time: The Army National Guard from 2005 to 2012; the Army Reserve from 2007 to 2012; and the active duty from 2008 to 2009. The total program was approximately $459 million.
In a Senate hearing, the Army alleged approximately $100 million in fraud. The Army CID, using over 200 agents, has spent about $40 million on the investigations to date, but only $2.377 million has been recovered—nowhere close to the alleged amount of fraud and a horrible return on the investment of resources. Yes, there was some fraud, and the guilty have been prosecuted in court. But some of that money reflects mere capitulation; it was easier for some soldiers to simply return what they had earned through G-RAP than fight CID.
The Army Audit Agency conducted five separate audits of G-RAP. CID itself criminalized G-RAP program violations (not following ever-changing rules). Guardsmen who ran amiss of these rules were accused of fraud, a felony defined by the Army, audited by the Army, investigated by the Army and prosecuted by the Army in both civilian courts and through military administration. In some cases, the G-RAP “crime” amounted to just one payment of $2,000 when recruits could not remember the names of the individuals who recruited them from several years earlier…failed memory as felony!
In many cases, where there was only an investigation, Guard members have been flagged, their promotions and other favorable actions stopped, and their careers ruined over nothing more than unproven allegations. Many have capitulated and repaid their payments just to try and put an end to the unfounded allegations, and then found out the allegations didn’t end. Some have gone to court and been exonerated, yet still received punishment or career ending actions. Some have lost their conceal-carry licenses or job credentials. Some have lost their civilian jobs—all due to heavy handed investigations by CID agents who had no authority to question or investigation those with whom they had no jurisdiction.
This domestic attack on the Army National Guard must stop. The Army must own up to their embellished Congressional testimony and set the record straight. The Army, and especially the CID Command, owe it to each and every Guard member whose life has been terrorized and ruined to make them whole again, whatever it takes—do the right thing. And it needs to happen now.
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