Andrea Stone, USA Today
Posted 2005-06-29 10:47:00.0
WASHINGTON Halliburton has billed taxpayers more than $1.4 billion in
questionable and unsupported charges for logistics and other services in Iraq,
according to a Democratic congressional report released Monday. Citing newly
released government audits, the Senate Democratic Policy Committee held its fifth
hearing on Halliburton and chastised Republicans once again for not being tougher
on the company Vice President Cheney led from 1995 until 2000.
"This testimony doesn't just call for congressional oversight; it screams for it," said
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
Jen Burita, a spokeswoman for Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs
Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Congress and government
auditors have conducted nearly a dozen reports on Halliburton and that the panel
"monitors very closely" the activities of the main U.S. contractor in Iraq.
Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann called Democrats' statements "false" and
noted that while every contractor faces audit questions, her company has been
unfairly singled out. Only the political rhetoric has been inflated, she said in an e-
mail, calling the figures a "gross mischaracterization."
Whistle-blower testimony and a previously undisclosed Army audit found
Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) inflated cost estimates,
billed for unnecessary equipment and personnel, submitted millions of dollars in
duplicate charges and was repeatedly given preferential treatment over other
contractors.
The report cited these examples of inflated costs:
- $617,000 for double-billed soft drinks.
- $1 million in excessive laundry charges.
- More than $560,000 for unneeded heavy equipment, including tractors and
trailers.
- $2.2 million for cargo aircraft and $7.6 million for freight costs that "appeared
to be duplicate."
- $1.4 million to pay 146 workers at a facility that had only 62.
The Army audit blamed lax Defense Department oversight, saying Pentagon
officials often discarded lower government cost estimates in favor of the
contractor's inflated ones. While the government estimated it would take $1.9
million to run Baghdad's airport, Halliburton charged $12.8 million. A contract to
run Camp Arifjan in Kuwait cost $10.8 million instead of the government $2.8
million estimate.
A separate Defense Contract Audit Agency review revealed $219 million in
questioned charges related to fuel imports by Halliburton.
In addition, Rory Mayberry, a former KBR food manager at Camp Anaconda in Iraq,
testified on videotape from Baghdad that the company charged for twice the
number of meals it provided and served food beyond its expiration date. He said
managers ordered workers to pick bullets and shrapnel out of food shipments that
had been damaged by gunfire or bombings and serve it to troops.
Mayberry said managers threatened to send workers who talked to auditors to
more dangerous parts of Iraq.
