Gulf War Illnesses: Management Actions Needed to Answer Basic Research Questions

The Secretary of Defense has not directed the Executive Director of the Research Working Group to collect such data. For further information, refer to the status of VA's response to the recommendation.

The Executive Director of the RWG has not received direction to collect such data. For further information on progress toward implementing this recommendation, see the comments associated with VA and DOD.

Following release of this report, VA commissioned an Institute of Medicine assessment of the feasibility of a prospective cohort study incorporating an appropriate baseline control group. VA reports that, consistent with IOM's recommendation, it has since released a solicitation for one or more longitudinal cohort studies. As further evidence of progress toward implementation of this recommendation, VA cites studies it expects to complete in fall 2001--treatment trials on antibiotic and exercise-behavioral therapy, Phase III of the National Survey of Persian Gulf Veterans (which incorporates physical examinations of a sample of Gulf War veterans), and a study of the prevalence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. VA reports that it has completed five projects to assess the effectiveness of specialized clinics and use of case management and multidisciplinary treatment to manage complex medical problems, and funded an IOM report on several of the more common symptoms and illnesses in Gulf War veterans that reviewed treatments shown to be effective. Many of these efforts address the basic concerns with veterans' health and their effective treatment that motivated GAO's recommendation. While only the longitudinal study (under solicitation) would be expected to provide representative information on the health of Gulf War veterans over time, limited longitudinal information on veterans' health may have been developed under some of the health services research projects identified by VA.

The Secretary of Defense has not directed the Research Working Group to coordinate OSAGWI's efforts with the VA and HHS. For further information, see the status report on VA's response to this recommendation.

The Executive Director of the Research Working Group has not received such direction. For further information, see the comments associated with VA.

VA did not concur with this recommendation, which called for specific Secretarial direction to the Executive Director of the Research Working Group. The Department indicated that the Research Working Group had already provided sufficient information on the scope of activities that it continued to coordinate among VA, DOD, and HHS. GAO found, however, that substantially similar activities fell outside this scope and observed nothing in the law that would limit the Group's coordinating efforts to this scope of activities.

The subject task order expired, and the services that OSAGWI had purchased under it are now purchased from the same contractor (then known as BDM, now TRW) under a Blanket Purchase Agreement formed pursuant to FAR 13.303.

DOD did not concur with this recommendation. While DOD did not take issue with GAO's conclusion that it had issued a task order outside the scope of a multiple-award task order contract, it asserted that OSAGWI's contracting actions complied with the laws and regulations in effect at the time of the award, and stated that OSAGWI had relied on the judgment of contracting professionals outside that office. As GAO noted in the report, this would not absolve the office of responsibility concerning how its contract support is acquired, which would include, at a minimum, responsibility for determining and articulating its requirements.

A report is in review. For further information, see comments associated with VA.

A report to Congress is currently under review. Refer to the comments associated with VA and DOD for further information.

Department officials indicate that this information has been incorporated in a forthcoming report to Congress that is currently under review.