Inspectors complained that because of splintered responsibilities and lack of coordination, annual Pentagon reports to Congress updating efforts against weapons of mass destruction did not clearly show what was being accomplished with spending.

It said if managers or Congress tried to follow the reports from year to year for 31 specific programs (on which $917 million was spent in 2003), they could not determine "whether those programs were complete or exactly what was accomplished with the funds."

Among such programs were developing chemical and biological weapon detectors, protective clothing, protective shelters and decontamination systems — some of which have undergone testing at Dugway Proving Ground.

The report said the Pentagon, as recommended by the Inspector General, was taking new action to try to improve coordination. Several offices were appointing lead agencies to coordinate their efforts, and a new coordination committee with more power had been formed.

The report also recommended that more detailed operations plans for combating weapons of mass destruction be prepared — to allow measuring progress from year to year — and it said several offices and commands concurred with that or said such plans are being refined.

Many of the specifics, and internal debate about them, were blacked out in the censored report provided to the Morning News.

To show the importance of the topic, the report noted that a survey by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., of experts in June 2005 estimated "a 70 percent chance of a WMD attack somewhere in the world within the next 10 years." The threat is considered increasingly high as terrorist groups have attempted to gain such weapons.

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com