WASHINGTON -- A congressional report gives high marks to the Pentagon for stepping up its handling of inquiries and complaints about gulf war illnesses but says its evaluation of cases could be improved.
The General Accounting Office in a recent report says the Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses, established in 1996, has cleared a backlog of 1,200 cases and is handling thousands of inquiries a week.The Defense Department "has made progress in carrying out its mandate to comprehensively address gulf war illnesses-related issues," said the report, requested by Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
The GAO, which does nonpartisan research and investigation for Congress, said the Pentagon has stepped up its handling of complaints and inquiries from veterans.
The military acknowledges that illnesses suffered by thousands of veterans are real, but years of study have not come up with clear diagnoses or clear evidence of causes. About 100,000 of the 700,000 American men and women who served in the Persian Gulf in 1991 say they are sick, and many believe their illnesses are related to exposure to chemical or biological warfare agents.
The new assessment of the Pentagon's handling of the issue notes that in 1996 the now-defunct Persian Gulf Illnesses Investigation Team operated with a staff of 12 persons and a budget of $4.1 million and reported to an assistant secretary for health. The new office, which reports directly to the deputy secretary of defense, has a staff of 200 and a budget of $29.4 million.
In looking at six cases reviewed by the gulf war office, the GAO said three of them were flawed by procedural, investigative or reporting problems.
Despite the weaknesses, however, GAO investigators agreed with the Pentagon's conclusions in all but one case. In that one, it said the possibility of exposure to chemical agents should be raised from "unlikely" to "indeterminate" because of information overlooked by investigators.
In all cases, flaws appeared to be relatively minor. Some were the result of Pentagon investigators not taking advantage of available government databases on the health of thousands of gulf war veterans, the report said.