BELLEVILLE (AP) — The Illinois Department of Human Services has announced it is "re-evaluating the role" of its Office of the Inspector General following a report that the agency failed to investigate the deaths of disabled residents who allegedly were victims of neglect and abuse.

A Belleville News-Democrat investigation revealed that since 2003, the inspector general did not investigate 53 cases called into the agency's hotline that told of disabled adults who were allegedly abused or neglected and later died.

The Office of the Inspector General cites an interpretation of the Adults with Disabilities Intervention Act, passed in 2000, which it says does not make it responsible for investigating the circumstances surrounding those deaths because "the dead are ineligible for services." Statewide, the office lists 53 employees and operates on a $5 million annual budget.