Report: AF Academy dropouts owe $10M - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Report: AF Academy dropouts owe $10M

Air Force Academy dropouts owe taxpayers nearly $10 million — enough to buy three unmanned aircraft or to build a squadron operations center — because of foot-dragging by the Pentagon’s bill collector, a new report shows.

The Defense Department audit, performed at the request of the Air Force’s second top uniformed officer, found that 130 former cadets each racked up an average of $107,343 in tuition before deciding to quit. All the deadbeats left the academy between 1988 and 2009 during either their junior or senior year. There is no statute of limitations on debt collection.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service is responsible for making dropouts pay back the money; so far it has collected only $1.8 million and has written off $2.52 million as uncollectible. Of the $9.62 million outstanding, $3.9 million has been owed for more than five years.

DFAS on average took 87 days to send out its first letter to the former cadets and 18 months to collect any money from them. The process is slow because DFAS treated all debts — from $10 to $100,000-plus — with the same level of concern, according to the report.

“DFAS did not give these debts priority and did not proactively manage their collections,” the investigators concluded.

In a written response with the report, DFAS promised to send out initial debt collection letters within 30 days to give debts of $50,000 a higher profile. The agency had no additional comments about the findings when contacted by Air Force Times.

Gen. William Fraser asked for the inquiry when he held the vice chief job, from October 2008 to September 2009 because the service even then was concerned about the speed with which DFAS was recouping the dollars, the report said.

The current vice chief of staff, Gen. Howie Chandler, in a written statement welcomed DFAS’ efforts.

“The Air Force appreciates that the DFAS is working to recoup taxpayer dollars, as is statutorily required in certain cases, after a cadet is dis-enrolled from the Air Force Academy,” Chandler said.

Service officials are demanding at least 18 lieutenants — all being cut in a 6,000-airmen drawdown — pay back a share of their Air-Force-sponsored college costs, as high as $130,000. The junior officers washed out of their initial skills courses, including schools for missile officers and pilots, and the Air Force refused to retrain them.

“Clearly, they took on these obligations voluntarily, and provided that there are no mitigating circumstances, it is not inappropriate to ask, with a reasonable [repayment] schedule, for people to reimburse the taxpayers for the investment that was made,” Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said in an August interview with Air Force Times.

“It is a business proposition, in my view,” he said.