Halliburton Unit Probed for Possible Overbilling of U.S. (mess hall)

[diamond14]

Halliburton Unit Probed for Possible Overbilling of U.S.

By Jackie Spinner and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 12, 2003; Page A01


Defense Department auditors have discovered that a Halliburton Inc. subsidiary may have overcharged the government $61 million on a contract to supply fuel for Iraq, a Pentagon official said at a hurriedly called news conference last night.

In another contract to operate U.S. military mess halls, Halliburton, which was headed by Dick Cheney before he became vice president, would have been overpaid $67 million if auditors hadn't questioned the arrangement, officials said, citing findings of a draft audit.

.....On the contract to operate mess halls, the official said that Halliburton told the Pentagon its subcontractor price would be $220 million. But auditors examining Halliburton's operations found that at that time, the company already had awarded a subcontract under which the cost was actually $67 million lower than that.

"You'd have to be pretty stupid" to do this on purpose, the official said, implying that it was an easy discrepancy to catch. He said he believes this was "a clear, obvious, miscommunication error" that resulted from a "disconnect" between the company's operations in the Mideast and its contracting office at its Houston headquarters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57520-2003Dec11.html


$ 61 Million plus $67 Million dollars = $ 128 Million dollars in 'overbilling'...can we fire Haliburton NOW ??? !!!

[wryter2000]

1. And...

And these are the aholes who didn't even feed the soldiers because they couldn't get insurance to cover their employees. They're the reason our kids had to live for months on MRE's. It's a disgrace.

[diamond14]

3. but, but...these are the people who created the glorious fake

turkey for shrub's heroic trip to the Baghdad airport...

who could ask for more???? IMO, rummy decided that the 'fake turkey photo insert' was well worth the extra contract padding....

it's time to BOOT BUSH....send the shrub back to the pig farm....

[underpants]

9. No see the fake turkey cost so much because it was a part of a normal run

of said fake turkeys. See they had to gear up all the machinery and purchasing aparatus needed to make/buy that ONE extra fake turkey if it had been a part of a run of fake turkeys it wouldn't have cost so much.

That is the standard excuse given by military contractors who charge for $500 hammers and such.

[Fleshdancer]

2. hmmm....

And on a less serious note (because if I get any angrier, I will explode),

I wonder how much these a**holes charged us for the fake Thanksgiving Day turkey??? Should we place bets now?

[54anickel]

5. I'd guess .78 million per pound. n/t

[Bozita]

4. The ripoff could have paid for 160,000 body armor vests

Basing the calculation upon a $800 per vest cost.

[GregW]

6. And ...

These are the guys that when headed by Cheney did $73M worth of work in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy to know that our VP profited from helping the Butcher of Bagdad rebuild his oil infrastructure.

[lebkuchen]

17. Thanks for the reminder

and the link.

[tlcandie]

7. But it was just miscommunication...thaz all ...

Pulled from the article...

<snip>
You'd have to be pretty stupid" to do this on purpose, the official said, implying that it was an easy discrepancy to catch. He said he believes this was "a clear, obvious, miscommunication error" that resulted from a "disconnect" between the company's operations in the Mideast and its contracting office at its Houston headquarters.
<snip>

Can we use this on our income taxes when the IRS says it doesn't jive? :eyes:

[BenFranklinUSA]

8. Not much of a story here, folks...

...when you consider that it's a hostile zone
to be delivering gasoline into.

If the press audits previous examples of same,
god help us if this turns out to be a good price!

:(

[underpants]

11. Then how can Iraqis move it for a quarter of the price?

Are they in some parallel land where they don't have to drive through the same areas?

I heard the same thing said last night on ABC News and no explanation was forthcoming from anyone.

Welcome to DU :hi:

[MrPrax]

18. Good point...

Iraqis were paying a nickel a liter before the war...

You don't think tht Haliburton is 'creaming' do you?

Nawh...all of it is Sweet West Texas crude...packaged and shipped to the starving trucks of Iraq.

[Wickerman]

10. Ok, so they aren't feeding the troops MREs

and many kids ate nothing BUT MREs (when they could get them) for months. When my nephew was in Iraq he ate MREs constantly - when he did get to a base he didn't eat in a mess hall, he spend his cash eating at a portable Pizza Hut or a Burger King that was trucked in.

I doubt that was uncommon.

So, again, where the hell did the money go? They screwed up the MRE distribution, there are competing fast food entities, and they still make "accounting mistakes". Bullshit, sounds like treason to me.

[underpants]

12. Are the barrakcs built yet?

From what I have read that is in about the same shape as the food distribution. Oh if you are in the Division BAND you are sleeping in at least the building of a former palace and eating well, hot water and the like.

No they have been receiving OUR money and NOT doing what they were payed for. They cite insurance policies not letting them feed/construct as contracted to do. Tough luck, get it done.

[Wickerman]

13. Good point

isn't that why they are the front people and given a wad of cash? To make certian that they can get past technicalities like insurance and such? Funny, we didn't have problems when teams like the AF's Red Horse or the Army eqiv. built our temp bases. No, out sourcing is such a good idea, right Rummy?

[54anickel]

14. In the mean time, issuing contracts are on hold AGAIN, allowing

Hellaburnin to pocket a bit more profit in the meantime.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=265258

[alfredo]

15. they did not break the law because Bush added to the 87 Billion bill,

language that removes penalties for war profiteering. So stop complaining about all our money going into the pockets of bush contributors, you should be happy that a great American company like Halliburton and KBR can make money so they can deposit it in a bank off shore.

[54anickel]

16. Oh ya, I sort of remember something like that being in one of those

many spending bills he railroaded through. Seems to bury all the good stuff in the middle of the fine print, gives folks a couple of hours to digest, then threatens a veto if anyone questions it.
Ain't democracy grand.