12/12/2003: 
Fraud & Conspiracy
Pentagon calls Shenanigans on Halliburton
By Matt Kelley, from Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Pentagon auditors found that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company overcharged by possibly as much as $61 million for gasoline in Iraq, senior defense officials said Thursday.
The Pentagon officials said the Halliburton subsidiary involved in Iraq reconstruction work, Kellogg, Brown & Root, also submitted a proposal for cafeteria services that was $67 million too high. The officials said the Pentagon rejected that proposal.
"Contractor improprieties and/or contract mischarging on department contracts will neither be condoned nor allowed to continue," Dov Zakheim, the Pentagon's budget chief, said Thursday.
Yep! No one saw that coming.
More
From The Gurdian:In 1997 and 2000, the General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog, found that KBR had billed the army for questionable expenses on its support contracts for operations in the Balkans.
Those reviews cited instances such as charging $85.90 per sheet of plywood actually costing $14.06, and billing the army for cleaning some offices up to four times per day.
From The Australian:
Pentagon officials said yesterday an internal audit found Halliburton's subsidiary in Iraq - Kellog, Brown and Root - was charging the US Government at least $2.27 for a gallon of petrol brought in from Kuwait. Iraq's state-owned enterprise had been buying petrol from its neighbour for about $0.97 a gallon prior to KBR's arrival.
5 Annotations Submitted
Friday the 12th of December, rafuzo noted:
I really, really don't want to defend Halliburton, but the idiocy of the Halliburton-Cheney-Bush conspiracy theory is surpassed only by its common acceptance among apparently reasonable individuals. This is a prime example: the Pentagon caught them overcharging, thus there's a scam going on. But if the Pentagon HADN'T caught them, and, say, the OMB or the GAO (or even the NYTimes) did, it would be proof of a scam. It's a tautology; proof constitutes proof, and absence of proof constitutes proof.
Halliburton was getting contracts under Clinton's administration too, as this article points out. It should also point out that the GAO is an executive office -- meaning it reports to the president. It would stand to reason, if the conspiracy theory held water, that Bush would stop them from auditing these contracts if they really wanted Cheney's evil, fanged tophat wearing friends to profit from this.
But while we're talking conspiracies, let's talk about Clinton's sales of Rockwell Collins and Loral missile guidance systems to the Chinese for some campaign cash in 1997. And now the Chinese have announced new Dong-Feng-15 tactical and Long March 5 ballistic missile programs? wooeeeooo! Freaky.
Friday the 12th of December, awiggins noted:
I never said there was a conspiracy, merely that is more than a little shady. I was leaning more towards the fraud side of things. You don't find it disturbing that Halliburton said "oops, I overcharged you $60 million, twice." By the way, could you let me know what the figure is for government contracts being awarded with out the bidding process?
As for Clinton, his actions were as shady as the current proceedings, if not more so. Santo26 would be a better person to talk to then I on that matter.
Friday the 12th of December, rafuzo noted:
I don't find it disturbing precisely because we know about it. That means the auditors were doing their jobs. Show me documentation that they were caught, and they got away with it, THEN you'll have evidence of fraud.
Friday the 12th of December, awiggins noted:
The joke about the "$5,000 toilet seat" has to come from somewhere. The fact is, they were trying to defraud the people of the United States. Congratulations to the auditors for doing their jobs. You can't tell me that Cheney does not still have some interest in Halliburton. He still has stock options in the company, and if I understand stock options correctly, if Halliburton does well then Cheney does well. So if Halliburton makes an extra $120 million, thats good news for Cheney. Halliburton, and Cheney, should be taken to the cleaners.
Friday the 12th of December, prof_booty noted:
i would be much more inclined to believe that the left was looking for conspiracies where there isnt one if cheney had allowed the energy task force files be made public. there was this one company that had lots of influence, what were they called? oh yeah, enron. there is a growing credibility gap in the administration.
