Nevada senator calls for criminal investigation of CDC over misspent money

Bart Jansen

Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999 | 9:57 a.m.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is reviewing a request from Nevada Sen. Harry Reid for a criminal investigation into the diversion of research funds at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the six months since the Department of Health and Human Services reported that the agency misspent millions of dollars earmarked for research of chronic fatigue syndrome, the CDC hasn't reprimanded the officials involved, Reid said.

Reid, a Democrat who originally requested the research funding, said he was concerned the CDC would ignore congressional spending priorities if officials aren't disciplined.

"In fact, the CDC lied to Congress about how those funds were spent," he said. "I hope this is not common practice at the CDC and I am concerned that this situation is not being taken seriously."

Reid asked Attorney General Janet Reno in a letter Monday to investigate possible violations of the 1996 False Statements Accountability Act. His request was forwarded to criminal lawyers for review, a spokesman said.

The General Accounting Office is also evaluating the episode. But that review is expected to focus on the science, not the funding, so that lost research can be made up, Reid said.

An inspector general reported in May that only $9.8 million of the $22.7 million Congress set aside to study chronic fatigue syndrome from 1995 to 1998 was actually spent on the illness.

At least $8.8 million was spent on other research, including measles and polio. But government auditors said they could not determine what happened to an additional $4.1 million and the CDC has not explained where the money went.

CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan apologized in October for the diversion of funds. He promised a "reinvigorated effort" to study the mysterious illness called chronic fatigue, which leaves some people so drained they can't perform simple tasks.

The agency has promised to restore $12.9 million for chronic fatigue studies over the next four years.

First identified in Nevada in 1985, the disease now afflicts as many as 500,000 Americans, according to the CDC.

But researchers don't know what causes the syndrome, when it began, or how many new cases crop up each year.

The CDC is almost three years into a study in Wichita, Kan., and estimates that about one-fourth of 1 percent of the population there suffers from chronic fatigue. The CDC says it mainly affects middle-aged, white women.