Last Week:
The Army botched planning and management of the multibillion-dollar contract to provide food and other services to troops in Iraq, congressional investigators said.Investigators from the Government Accountability Office found a pattern of problems that led to cost disputes between the Pentagon and the contractor, Houston-based Halliburton. The GAO investigators also criticized Halliburton's staffing and accounting.
So far, the military has agreed to pay Halliburton more than $5 billion on the contract in question.
Separate federal investigations are looking into whether Halliburton overcharged the Army for fuel and meals and allegations that former Halliburton workers may have taken bribes from a Kuwaiti subcontractor.
Halliburton, which Vice President Dick Cheney headed from 1995 until 2000, has said it did the best it could in the chaos of war. The company also has pointed to problems with military oversight of the contract -- complaints echoed in the GAO report.
The GAO report, released Wednesday, said problems with the Army's oversight included:
• Waiting until May 2003, after the fall of Baghdad, to develop a plan for providing support services to troops in Iraq.
• Taking more than a year, in some cases, to work out final costs on projects worth billions.
• Failing to train contract managers on how the contract should be managed, despite more than a decade of experience with the same problems. ("Report: Army bungled Halliburton contract")
Yesterday:
Halliburton Co. has lost $18.6 million of government property in Iraq, about a third of the items it was given to manage, including trucks, computers and office furniture, government auditors claim.The auditors couldn't account for 6,975 of 20,531 items on the ledgers of Halliburton's KBR unit, according to a report by Stuart Bowen, auditor for the coalition provisional authority inspector general.
Halliburton is providing services to U.S. troops under a contract that has generated $3.2 billion in revenue so far.
"This occurred because KBR did not effectively manage government property," Bowen wrote. "As a result, we projected that KBR could not account for 6,975 property items from an inventory of 20,531 valued at $61.1 million."
Halliburton is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegedly overcharging the military by $61 million for fuel purchases.
Democrats accuse the Bush administration of favoring the company because of its former connections to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Halliburton disagrees with the new audit, said company spokeswoman Cathy Gist.
"The examination simply included projections that were based on limited sample groups that were not necessarily a representative selection amount, which could have provided a more accurate measure," Gist said in an e-mailed statement. "The facts show that (KBR) has adequately managed the property for this mission by aggressively monitoring its property management functions above and beyond what is required for government approval of a property control system." ("Millions in U.S. property lost in Iraq, report says")
And also yesterday:
Halliburton Co.'s engineering unit KBR was awarded a contract worth up to $500 million to provide private sector construction and related services to the U.S. Navy and other defense department agencies, the company said on Tuesday.Under the contract, KBR could be asked to provide program planning and other services as well as personnel, equipment, materials and labor as needed by the Navy.
The total amount of the contract which includes one base year and four one-year options, is not to exceed $500 million and was won under a competitively awarded contract, the unit said.
Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, is the U.S. Army's main logistics contractor in Iraq and also has a separate deal trying to revive Iraq's oil industry. It has been mired in controversy over its work in Iraq since it has won lucrative deals and military auditors have found evidence of possible overcharging for some work. ("Halliburton Wins $500 Mln Navy Deal")
