Hm. I downloaded that and ran this:

use Spreadsheet::ParseExcel;
my $parser   = Spreadsheet::ParseExcel->new();
my $workbook;
{
    local $^W;
    $workbook = $parser->parse('C:/Downloaded/DEC_10_DP_DPDP1.xls') or
+ die $!, $^E;
}
[download]

Without disabling the warnings I get gazillions of these:

Use of uninitialized value $iBlock in numeric lt (<) at c:/Perl64/site
+/lib/OLE/Storage_Lite.pm line 1246.
Use of uninitialized value $iBlock in addition (+) at c:/Perl64/site/l
+ib/OLE/Storage_Lite.pm line 1165.
Use of uninitialized value in numeric ne (!=) at c:/Perl64/site/lib/OL
+E/Storage_Lite.pm line 1107.
Use of uninitialized value in numeric ne (!=) at c:/Perl64/site/lib/OL
+E/Storage_Lite.pm line 1107.
[download]

And $workbook is undef with these errors reported:

Bad file descriptor The handle is invalid at C:\test\recuriveFree.pl l
+ine 34.
[download]

I've installed teh latest versions available of everything that seems relevant:

C:\test>ppm-shell
ppm 4.10 (ActivePerl 1007)
Copyright (C) 2010 ActiveState Software Inc.  All rights reserved.
ppm> search Win32::OLE
1: Win32-OLE
   OLE Automation extensions
   Version: 0.1709
   Released: 2008-04-18
   Author: Jan Dubois <jand@activestate.com>
   Provide: Win32::OLE version 0.1709
   Provide: Win32::OLE::Const
   Provide: Win32::OLE::TypeInfo
   Provide: Win32::OLE::Variant
   Repo: ActiveState Package Repository
   CPAN: http://search.cpan.org/dist/Win32-OLE-0.1709/
   Installed: 0.1709 (perl)
ppm> search OLE-Storage_Lite
1: OLE-Storage_Lite
   Read and write OLE storage files.
   Version: 0.19
   Released: 2009-11-24
   Author: John McNamara <jmcnamara@cpan.org>
   Provide: OLE::Storage_Lite version 0.19
   Repo: ActiveState Package Repository
   CPAN: http://search.cpan.org/dist/OLE-Storage_Lite-0.19/
   Installed: 0.19 (site)
ppm> search Spreadsheet::ParseExcel
1: Spreadsheet-ParseExcel
   Read information from an Excel file.
   Version: 0.59
   Released: 2011-04-06
   Author: John McNamara <jmcnamara@cpan.org>
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Cell version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Dump version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::FmtDefault version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::FmtJapan version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::FmtJapan2 version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::FmtUnicode version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Font version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Format version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::SaveParser version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::SaveParser::Workbook version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::SaveParser::Worksheet version 0.5
+9
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Utility version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Workbook version 0.59
   Provide: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Worksheet version 0.59
   Require: Crypt::RC4
   Require: Digest::Perl::MD5
   Require: IO::File
   Require: IO::Scalar
   Require: OLE::Storage_Lite version 0.19 or better
   Require: Scalar::Util
   Repo: ActiveState Package Repository
   CPAN: http://search.cpan.org/dist/Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-0.59/
   Installed: 0.59 (site)
[download]

Perhaps you could checksum the file so I can check for corruption; or advise what I'm doing wrong?