Cheney and Halliburton: Top Earners In Iraq

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Sun, 9 Apr 2006 18:45:28 -0700 (PDT)

Cheney and Halliburton: Top Earners In Iraq

 

 

Cheney and Halliburton: Top Earners In Iraq

By EVELYN PRINGLE

 

There has never been an investigation into Cheney's

involvement in awarding Halliburton no-bid contracts

making the company the number one war profiteerer in

Iraq. Apparently people have forgotten about the March

5, 2003 e-mail between the Army Corps of Engineers and

a Pentagon employee that stated the contract " has been

coordinated w VP's office. "

 

People also seem to have forgotten that Cheney

continues to own stock in Halliburton. Stock that has

risen in leaps and bounds since its former CEO moved

into the White House and developed the most prolific

war profiteering scheme of all time.

 

A study released in June 2005, originating from the

Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), revealed that

overall, Halliburton had received roughly 52% of the

$25.4 billion that has been paid out to private

contractors since the war in Iraq began.

 

Halliburton was the top profiteer when it came to

funds belonging to the citizens of Iraq as well. A

March 18, 2004 audit report by the Department of

Defense Office of the Inspector General, titled,

" Acquisition: Contracts Awarded by the Coalition

Provisional Authority by the Defense Contracting

Command-Washington, " determined that the CPA and its

predecessor, the Office for Reconstruction and

Humanitarian Assistance, had circumvented federal

contracting procedures since the early days of the

occupation.

 

The audit found that federal procurement rules were

not followed in 22 of 24 contracts awarded by the

Defense Contracting Command and that defense

department personnel conducted " inadequate

surveillance " on more than half of the contracts; did

not " perform or support price reasonableness

determinations; " and allowed activity that was

" out-of-scope " of the original contracts.

 

An analysis of the data released in August 2004,

showed the CPA had awarded 85% of the contracts to US

and UK firms and that Iraqi companies received a mere

2% of the contracts paid for with Iraqi funds.

Halliburton received 60% of all contracts paid for

with Iraqi money.

 

Halliburton's contracts are " cost-plus " deals and

according to Peter Singer, author of " Corporate

Warrior, " when the government gives out cost-plus

contracts, " essentially it rewards firms when they add

to costs rather than rewarding them for cost savings, "

he said.

 

Halliburton employees told Knight Ridder about a scam

where the company ran up costs by having employees

drive empty trucks back and forth across Iraq.

 

" There was one time we ran 28 trucks, one trailer had

one pallet (a trailer can hold as many as 26 four-foot

square pallets) and the rest of them were empty, " said

David Wilson, who was the convoy commander on more

than 100 runs. Four other drivers who were with Wilson

confirmed his account for Knight Ridder.

 

Halliburton's contract allows the company to pass on

the cost of the truck runs and add between 1% and 3%

for profit. " Trucking experts estimate that each round

trip costs taxpayers thousands of dollars, " according

to Knight Ridder.

 

But if you listen to Cheney, people are just picking

on Halliburton because they don't like him. Not so. I

would be mad at any company that billed me for driving

empty trucks across the desert, but it just so happens

that Halliburton is the company at the wheel.

 

Other whistleblowers described how employees were

instructed to abandon or torch new trucks, worth

$80,000, if they got a flat tire or had some other

minor problems, so that Halliburton could purchase new

trucks with taxpayer dollars.

 

People must have been picking on Halliburton long

before Iraq because under Cheney's watch, the company

was caught ripping of the government time and time

again. In 1997, the GAO caught the company charging

$85.98 for a sheet of plywood that only cost $14.06.

In a 2000 follow-up investigation, Halliburton was

caught billing tax payers for cleaning the exact same

office space 4 times a day.

 

So what happened as a result of these expensive

drawn-out investigations? In 2002 Halliburton paid a

$2 million fine for defrauding the government. The

investigation probably cost more than $2 mill.

 

In January 2004, two Halliburton employees were caught

red-handed taking $6.3 million in kickbacks from a

subcontractor in Iraq. The company gave the $6.3

million back, claimed it fired the employees, and went

on like nothing ever happened.

 

I guess Cheney would have us believe that 2 guys

stuffed $6.3 million in their back pockets without

Halliburton's knowledge. Well call me cynical or

whatever, but I don't buy it.

 

This time around, the Bush team not only ignored the

blatant misconduct, it gave Halliburton another $1.2

billion contract, a move that even upset republicans.

Rep Tom Davis, Chairman of the House Committee on

Government Reform stated: " It's incomprehensible that

the [bush] Administration could give Halliburton

another billion-dollar contract without fully

investigating such serious criminal wrongdoing. "

 

And that ain't all. In June 2004, the Pentagon's

Defense Contract Audit Agency completed a review that

found Halliburton had billed for 36% more meals in

Iraq than it had served to the troops, resulting in an

overcharge estimated to be as high as $186 million.

 

In July 2004, the GAO reported that when Halliburton

acted as a middleman for the operation of dining

halls, costs were over 40% higher.

 

So what kind of punishment did this misdeed bring? The

DCAA told Halliburton to send all bills to their

agency for approval before submitting them for

reimbursement.

 

In an August 16, 2004, memorandum, the DCAA

" identified significant unsupported costs " submitted

by Halliburton and said " while contingency issues may

have had an impact during the earlier stages of the

procurements, clearly, the contractor should have

adequate supporting data by now. "

 

When DCAA examined 7 task orders with a combined

proposed value of $4.33 billion, its auditors

identified unsupported costs totaling $1.82 billion.

 

On September 16, 2004, the Pentagon found that $34.2

million of the costs associated with KBR's task order

of the Iraqi oil infrastructure contract were

unreasonable, including $14.9 million in overcharges

and $17.7 million in " unsupported " costs.

 

On March 14, 2005, a Pentagon audit discovered $108

million in overcharges by KBR for delivering gasoline

to Iraq. The minority staff of the House Government

Reform Committee later determined that the total

overpayment through April 1, 2004 was $167 million.

 

And that still ain't all. In another case of fraud,

government auditors found Halliburton claimed to have

lost over $60 million worth of government property in

Iraq, including trucks, office furniture and

computers.

 

Stuart Bowen, auditor of the now-disbanded Coalition

Provisional Authority, said that 6,975 of 20,531 items

on Halliburton's ledgers were unaccounted for.

 

" This occurred because KBR did not effectively manage

government property, " his report said. " As a result, "

Bowen said, " we projected that KBR could not account

for 6,975 property items from an inventory of 20,531

valued at $61.1 million. "

 

The June 2005 DCAA study revealed new evidence of

Halliburton fraud to include the company: (1)

overcharged or presented questionable bills for close

to $1.5 billion; (2) lost 12 pre-fabricated bases

worth over $75; (3) billed $152,000 to provide a movie

library for 2,500 soldiers; and (4) submitted

inconsistent billings, eg: video cassette players $300

in some instances, and $1000 in others; $2.31 for

towels one day and $5 on another.

 

If Cheney is to be believed, the conspiracy to pick on

Halliburton is a global effort because as of July

2004, the French, British, Nigerian and US governments

were all investigating Halliburton's activities while

Cheney was CEO, for paying over $180 million in bribes

to Nigerian officials in exchange for a $6 billion

contract to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria.

 

In this investigation, former Halliburton employees

are ratting out Cheney himself. Ex-Halliburton

consultant, Attorney Jeffrey Tesler, testified under

oath in May, 2004 that he made bribery payments to

Jack Stanley, while Stanley was president of

Halliburton subsidiary KBR, and also made payments to

Halliburton executive William Chaudran. His testimony

was backed up by banking records and Tesler said CEO

Cheney approved the payments.

 

Cheney had better not get too comfortable because his

criminal empire may soon come crashing down around

him. If democrats take back the house and the senate

next November, I think its safe to say that

investigations will follow. --posted March 31, 2006

 

http://www.bushwatch.com/pringle.htm