Associated Press
September 5, 2003

Report Rips Chemical Disarmament Program

JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Frequently changing leaders and the lack of a clear management plan have hampered a Pentagon initiative to eliminate the country's stockpile of chemical weapons, congressional investigators said Friday.

The report is the latest in a series of General Accounting Office documents that identify problems with the Army's Chemical Demilitarization Program.

Under an international treaty, the United States was supposed to have destroyed 45 percent of its stockpile of 31,280 tons of mustard gas, sarin and other chemical weapons by next April. This week, the Pentagon announced it would seek a delay until December 2007, the original deadline for having destroyed the entire stockpile.

While other reports have focused on the safety of incineration, the leading method for eliminating the weapons, this one targets poor management strategies and excessive turnover as reasons for delays and cost overruns.

Despite recent organizational changes, "the program remains in turmoil," the report concludes. "The lack of sustained leadership at both the upper levels of oversight and at the program-manager level confuses the decision-making authority and obscures accountability."

Over the past two decades, responsibility for the program has shifted from the Pentagon to the Army, then back to the Pentagon in 2001. The program also has lacked clear lines of authority in its individual management jobs, GAO concluded.

For example, the assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment committed $1 million to consider building an emergency operations center at an Oregon incinerator. The plan was pushed aside this year after the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology took over, the report found.

GAO says confusion over who was in charge ultimately caused Congress to cut the program's budget.

Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, said he agreed with the findings but argues the major concern isn't management but the safety of incineration, which began last month in Anniston, Ala., over the group's objections.

"Even a good management system can't achieve a goal with a fundamentally flawed technical approach," Williams said.

In a brief letter responding to GAO's findings, the Defense Department acknowledged it needs better implementation but estimated a plan would be available next year.

Several thousand tons of chemicals have been destroyed at incinerators near Tooele, Utah. Besides the incinerator active in Anniston, others are being tested at Pine Bluff Arsenal near Pine Bluff, Ark., and at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility near Hermiston, Ore.