Ga. Natl. Guard Officer Out Amid Questionable Bonuses

ATLANTA,None — Millions in federal bonuses are issued for recruiting and retaining federal employees. When Washington started asking questions last summer, the Georgia Guard froze its program which had been paying about $1.4 million a year in bonuses.

The attorney for a retired National Guard colonel told Channel 2 Action News investigative reporter Richard Belcher the government is embarrassed by all that bonus money. The Guard says the colonel was defrauding the taxpayers.

PDF: Incentive Report To Congress

A whistle blower tipped us last fall that several senior officers of the Georgia National Guard were senior officers under investigation for abusing the bonus program.

Among them was Co. Jay Peno, a full-time guardsman who was HR director of the Georgia Guard, in addition to his part-time military role.

Belcher asked Lashonda Rogers, Peno's attorney, if anyone had come to her client to say they had a problem with the bonuses, "No, they didn't," said Rogers.

Records show that Peno received nearly $177,891 in retention bonuses from early 2002 until the Pentagon started questioning Georgia's bonuses last year. Peno retired in April.

Rogers said her client never approved bonuses for himself and everything was known to higher-ups, including adjutant general Terry Nesbitt, head of the Georgia Guard.

Belcher asked Rogers, "The reports outlined who received each bonus and they were supplied to higher levels?"

"Yes," Rogers confirmed. When asked if Peno was the only one, she replied, "No."

According to a document uncovered by Belcher, an outside military investigator recommended Peno be fired, not because he abused the bonus program, but because of the leave time irregularities.

In a statement to Channel 2 Action News, the Georgia Guard wrote, "Two independent high level investigations concluded that colonel Jay Peno committed fraud."

The statement said the colonel, "Wrongfully received ... 1010 hours of sick leave."

The Guard said Peno paid back the money, then retired rather than face adverse reaction.

Rogers told Belcher she believes state officials are sensitive about the $1.4 million in bonuses Georgia Guard members were receiving until the investigations began last year. The national numbers dwarf those.

In 2008 the last year for which the government released bonus figures, federal employees in dozens of agencies were awarded almost $86 million in recruitment bonuses and almost $156 million in retention bonuses.

Nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in bonuses to federal employees when the country was in a recession. The Pentagon tops the list with more than $110 million in bonuses, Veteran Affairs a little over $47 million and Health and Human Services $25 million.

"We're in a time when the economy is not stellar, and it just does not look good to the public that there are bonuses that are still being given out," said Rogers.

For the past four months, Channel 2 Action News has checked with the Office of Personnel Management in Washington, looking for newer bonus totals, but so far, nothing.

The Georgia Guard told Channel 2 a chief master sergeant and a chief warrant officer are still facing possible disciplinary action because of the investigations last year.

WSBTV