About 92 percent of the backlogged invoices for the Army child care fee assistance program have now been paid, according to the General Services Administration.
The Army is moving the fee assistance program back to the previous contractor, Child Care Aware, in the wake of failed efforts by the GSA to manage the program. The transition is expected to be complete by January.
By the end of July, some 9,100 backlogged invoices had not been paid to child care providers, causing frustration and financial hardship for thousands of Army families, as well as for those providers.
According to a GSA Inspector General report, the program was in such disarray under that agency that many Army families were experiencing hardship — some forced to deal with collection agencies for unpaid bills from child care providers, some filing bankruptcy, and some spouses being forced to quit their jobs or put aside their education.
Pressed by lawmakers, a GSA official testified Sept. 10 that all the backlogged invoices to child care providers would be paid within 30 days.
By Oct. 7, GSA had paid 7,650 of the 8,274 invoices that were backlogged as of Sept. 10. The remaining 624 either are invalid or missing information necessary to validate the payment.
GSA is working with the child care providers and service members to resolve and pay valid invoices as soon as possible, an official said. Between Sept. 10 and Oct. 10, GSA paid $7.4 million to child care providers.
The subsidy programs help eligible military families reduce the cost of child care in the community when child care is not available on an installation. It compensates for some or all of the gap between the costs of care on post and outside the gates.
Families must provide documentation certifying their eligibility, and child care providers must prove they are qualified to provide the care. Providers submit invoices to GSA each month for each child enrolled.
For years, Child Care Aware, formerly known as NACCRRA, managed the program for the Army, and continues to do so for the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.
But from late summer to early fall of 2014, the Army transitioned its child care fee assistance program to GSA as a cost-saving move, according to an Army official who testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Sept. 10.
Officials expected to save $4 million to $5 million a year, compared to the previous cost of $8 million. But this year, through September, the Army's administrative costs for the program already had soared to $8.4 million.
The GSA Inspector General said the backlog was the result of the agency's failure to plan adequately for the expansion. Previously, GSA administered the child care fee assistance program for about 200 Army families enrolled in federal child care centers outside military installations.
When GSA agreed to expand its administration for the Army to include families in private child care centers, the agency was on notice that the expanded Army program would add more than 9,000 families to the caseload, and that they would be working with private child care providers. As of August, more than 5,000 private child care providers were enrolled in the program.
GSA initially agreed to complete applications within three business days, pay invoices within seven to 10 business days, and respond to customer service inquiries within one day.
Instead, the increased workload resulted in the backlogged invoices. Phone calls and emails piled up from frustrated families at a rate that GSA could not respond to.
GSA's voice mail system became so clogged with messages that officials periodically deleted families' voice mails because of the system's size limitations, the agency's IG found.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
