GAMING THE SYSTEM!

GAMING THE SYSTEM!

(Joseph Potvin, James Rieley, Reuters)

(USA TODAY, Green Bay Press Gazette)

(Tom Vanden Brook, Frazer Chronicle)

Gaming the system, what…..exactly…..does that mean, I always thought whenever anybody was gaming the system, he was smart as hell, had devised a way to beat whatever game or situation that he was in. And to a degree that is true, but the phrase encompasses so much more…..and the term should never appear in association with a governmental program where public funding is involved, anyways, as far as I’m concerned.

But here we are, at the beginning of 2014, using our hind-sight, which is always 20-20, to deal with the aftermath of a governmental recruiting program that has been used by the Army to fill out its quota of soldiers since…..are you ready for this…..2005.

Some unscrupulous American’s saw a way to make some easy cash, and went for it. There were, breaking the rules, abusing the system, milking the system, playing the system, working the system, or bending the rules. These people were involved in criminal activity, and to a degree were smarter that the checks and balances that officials thought were in place.

The headline in today’s USA TODAY: Widespread fraud claims Army recruiting plan, by Tom Vanden Brook, lay out a National Guard recruiting incentive program that paid hundreds of millions in bonuses to soldiers who persuaded friends to sign up during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The plan was simple, and viewed as successful during some of the darkest days of the war on terror back in 2005 and 2006. The results, today is that as many as 800 soldiers are under criminal investigation for being…..ah, less than honest with a program that paid out millions.

Why weren’t these programs around when I was younger, I might have taken a chance, and let the dice roll, especially on a recruiting program like this. One guy was paid $275,000, while four others realized $100,000 each. One Senator, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. (God I love to use that,) said that “it was discouraging and depressing; clearly we’re talking about one of the biggest criminal investigations in the history of the military.” (Gee, Mac. Do you think?)

Ms. McCaskill has scheduled a hearing on the scandal before a panel she leads on financial and contractor oversight. She has called top Army officials to testify, of course the Army had no comment on the hearing or the investigation, said George Wright, an Army spokesman.

I WOULD HAVE NO COMMENT EITHER

The program seemed to be working so well that the program was expanded to the Army Reserves and active-duty Army. People, military people, were being paid for referrals of recruits, however after audits turned up potential fraud, the program was cancelled…..in 2012. I’ll bet that there was some crying that day, gone was the easy money, soldiers working as recruiters were barred from receiving payments.

However, believe it or not, there were few measures to prevent those payments from happening, as cash payments of $2,000 to as much as $7,500 were directly deposited into the participating soldier’s bank account.

That same Army audit found that as many as 1,200 legal recruiters (you know, those military personnel who work in recruiting offices throughout the country, attempting to entice young people to join up), were also involved with the program. In addition as many as 2,000 recruiting assistants might have had their fingers in the cookie jar.

The scam apparently wasn’t just for the enlisted noncoms; more than 200 officers have been implicated and remain under investigation according to Madam McCaskill. In all as many as 100,000 soldiers will have to be screened to determine whether they scammed the system.

And to me, the biggest revelation regarding this probable scam is the fact that Packaging Broker Inc. was engaged as the contractor that ran the program for the Army. Senator McCaskill wants them, as well as key military, to be deposed and testify at impending hearings. A word here about Packaging Broker Inc. they apparently warned the Army of cases regarding potential fraud, but for whatever reason the warnings went unheeded.

ANOTHER FINANCIAL FIGURE THAT’LL NEED TO BE FACTORED INTO THE DEFENCE BUDGET

$650,000,000,000 for defense (I’m not sure about the number of zeros in a billion, but you get the picture,) and how much more in recruitment, bonuses, special payouts and combat financial benefits aren’t added into the defense budget?

As taxpayers we have all sorts over oversight committee’s to keep control of how, where, why and when budgetary funds are spent. Personally I don’t recall anything (coming across my desk) back in 2005 with regards to extra pay for a soldier recruiting his friend to join up.

Of course that’s not the way it works, maybe if it did we wouldn’t have war, but it sure seems evident to me that we need some different way to keep control of our taxpayer purse-strings. The possible number of guilty soldiers is set at 106,364 (I don’t know how they arrived at that number), but if it’s true, what in hell are we gonna do with 106,364 felons, can you imagine how much it would cost to jail these people…..and they won’t be paying back their ill gotten booty anytime soon.

As I slide further into my GOLDEN YEARS I see more and more abuse with regards to public (taxpayer) funds, and frankly I have no idea what to do. We seem to have created a system that right out of the gate is ripe for fraud at the most, and unscrupulous activity at the least.

It drives me crazy what people with authority overlook, in situations that beg for at the least action, and at the most….. justice. Maybe it’s a fraternity of pirates, like 400 years ago when the high seas were ruled pretty much by thieves…..because it’s what’s happening with taxpayers money…..make no mistake.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!