The National Guard has been failing to pay enlistment bonuses to approximately 9,000 soldiers, with some waiting for their payments for years. The situation is so dire that nearly 3,900 soldiers have completed their service without receiving any bonuses. Issues with payment processing systems and inefficiencies in administrative operations are cited as main contributors to the delay. This isn’t the first time the National Guard has faced scrutiny over bonuses, recalling an incident where the California National Guard mistakenly issued bonuses and then tried to recoup them.
  

Key Points: 

1. The National Guard is behind on paying enlistment bonuses to nearly 9,000 soldiers, with many delays lasting years.
2. Payment delays are attributed to challenges with the Army National Guard Incentive Management System (GIMS) which had multiple long-term outages, causing staff to manually process payments.
3. Guard officials are also tracking an additional 3,900 soldiers who completed their service without receiving any bonus payment.
4. In the past, the California National Guard tried to reclaim $195 million in wrongly issued enlistment bonuses from over 17,000 troops.
5. The National Guard Bureau is trying to address these issues at the state level, but correcting the problems might take years.

Source: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/10/27/soldiers-unpaid-national-guard-hasnt-paid-out-thousands-of-enlistment-bonuses.html