Gulf War Illnesses

The Departments of Veterans' Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Defense (DOD) spent more than $121 million during fiscal years 1997 and 1998 to research and investigate the illnesses of Gulf War veterans. DOD spent $112 million of this amount, mostly through its Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses. The results of the research and the investigation efforts are accruing slowly, and basic questions about the causes, the course of development, and the treatments of Gulf War veterans' illnesses remain unanswered. GAO found that the activities of the Office of the Special Assistant are not effectively coordinated with those of the Research Working Group. Also, work was improperly awarded to the Office's support contractors for tasks worth more than $20 million. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: Gulf War Illnesses: Basic Questions Unanswered, by Kwai-Cheung Chan, Director of Special Studies and Evaluations, before the Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans' Affairs, and International Relations, House Committee on Government Reform. GAO/T-NSIAD-00-79, Feb. 2 (nine pages).

GAO noted that: (1) during fiscal years (FY) 1997-1998, DOD, VA, and HHS spent more than $121 million on research and investigation of Gulf War veterans' illnesses, with DOD spending more than $112 million of that total; (2) these funds supported a growing catalog of research and investigatory efforts intended to address both veterans' health concerns and their questions about hazards encountered in the conflict; (3) the Office of the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Gulf War Illnesses spent about $65.3 million in FY 1997 and FY 1998, with another $65.4 million in spending planned for FY 1999 and FY 2000; (4) basic questions about the causes, course of development, and treatments of Gulf War veterans' illnesses remain unanswered; (5) as of November 30, 1999, the Research Working Group of the Persian Gulf Veterans' Coordinating Board had not published an assessment of the extent to which the research program had answered the major questions it identified as research objectives in 1995, and no date had been set to publish such an assessment; (6) while federally sponsored studies have resulted in some descriptive information concerning veterans' symptoms, many basic questions remain; (7) although the question of causation is unresolved, VA has begun recruiting patients for trials of antibiotic and exercise-behavioral treatments for a set of veterans' unexplained symptoms; (8) although the Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses expends more than half of the federal funds supporting research and investigation into Gulf War veterans' illnesses, its activities are not effectively coordinated with those of the Research Working Group; (9) the weak coordination between the Group and the Office increases the potential to miss opportunities to leverage ongoing and completed work by other agencies; (10) the Office rapidly developed relationships with various contractors to support its mission; (11) however, two of the largest task orders were awarded improperly, and the Office discouraged competition for another task order by specifying a preferred vendor; and (12) because the Office is likely to continue to spend a significant part of its budget on support contracts, it needs to ensure that its contracts fully comply with applicable requirements.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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