As a result, Congress established the Variable Reenlistment Bonus program in 1965. The Secretary of Defense has established three eligibility zones for the payment of SRBs. The cost of the SRB program varies considerably by service. To determine whether SRBs are awarded only where needed to overcome shortages, we applied two measures to each skill category that received SRBs in either fiscal year 1994 or 1993: (1) overall fill rate at the beginning of the fiscal year (defined as the percent of required positions that were filled) and (2) whether individuals in that same skill category had been given financial incentives to leave the service. Figures 4 and 5 show the percentage of new SRB contracts by service that went to personnel in skill categories having high fill rates and where other personnel in the same skill categories received separation incentives in fiscal years 1994 and 1993. However, the services have not defined which skills require higher fill rates than the 90-percent criterion used for readiness reporting. OSD Guidance and Oversight of the SRB Program Are Lacking

OSD is not providing adequate direction and oversight of the SRB program. 3.
Why GAO Did This Study

GAO reviewed whether the Department of Defense (DOD) has effectively managed the Selective Reenlistment Bonus (SRB) Program.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) the services have awarded some SRB to personnel in high-skill categories where a high percentage of the required positions are already filled; (2) in fiscal year (FY) 1994, 43 percent of the new SRB contracts went to service members in skill categories where 90 percent or more of the required positions were filled and in which many higher skill level service members were paid incentives to leave the service; (3) each SRB program is targeted to different segments of the military, including personnel in different grades and year groups; and (4) the Office of the Secretary of Defense has not provided adequate oversight of the SRB program, having performed only one skills review in FY 1991.