What I failed to mention in my previous post is that Halliburton has a "cost-Plus contract with the government. Halliburton appears to be fleecing the U.S. Treasury on those cost-plus contracts.

The incentive for the company is strong. Cost-plus means Halliburton gets a set percentage above actual costs, so in general the more it spends, the more it makes.

Quote:

the whistle-blowers worked directly for Halliburton, and one for a major Halliburton subcontractor. The head of the Government Reform Committee, Tom Davis (R-Va.), refused to allow them to testify in a hearing Tuesday about Iraq and contracting.

David Wilson, a convoy commander for Halliburton, and James Warren, a Halliburton truck driver, stated that new $85,000 Halliburton trucks in Kuwait were "torched" if they got a flat tire. According to Wilson, the company "removed all the spare tires in Kuwait," presumably so the entire truck would have to be replaced after a blowout. In addition, they said, they were instructed not to change the oil on trucks. Warren claims that after he expressed his concerns to Randy Harl, the head of a Halliburton subsidiary, he was fired. Marie deYoung, who worked in the subcontracts department of Halliburton, said the company paid for a laundry service that was so inefficient it cost $100 a bag.



Other evidence suggests this is more than sour grapes from former employees. A May 13 Pentagon audit said Halliburton exercised little control over subcontractors and didn't monitor the costs of contracts. The General Accounting Office has also investigated and found numerous problems.

Quote:

As for Halliburton, which has Iraq contracts worth up to a total of $18.2 billion, Pentagon auditors believe the company has been billing taxpayers for millions of meals never served to U.S. troops. The auditors have recommended that the government withhold nearly $200 million in payments until the dispute is settled.

In a related development, the Army recently renegotiated a contract Halliburton had with a Kuwaiti company to provide meals. By contracting directly with the Kuwaiti company, the Army cut 40% off the cost.

"Halliburton is a company whose business base expanded extremely rapidly" after it won contracts for work in Iraq, said Bill Reed, the head of the audit agency. "They were not adequately prepared to keep pace." (hey, I thought they were the best qualified,hence 'o bid contracts' -whomod)

The findings by unbiased sources add fuel to Democrats' efforts to draw attention to Halliburton, which was run by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), one of Halliburton's fiercest critics, demanded that the committee probe more deeply into the links between Halliburton and Cheney.

Investigators testified that there had been no evidence that Cheney influenced the award of any contract to his former company, but Waxman said more investigation was necessary.

He cited recent revelations that a Pentagon political appointee had informed Cheney's chief of staff about a decision that led to a Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, winning a $7-billion contract to restore Iraq's oil infrastructure.

"Halliburton is gouging the taxpayer, and the Bush administration doesn't seem to care," Waxman said.

But Halliburton officials defended their actions in Iraq, saying they strongly disagreed with the auditors' contention on overbilling for meals.

"We expected there would be attempts before the end of June to deflect attention from the progress being made in Iraq, but we didn't think so much of it would originate here at home," Wendy Hall, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said in a statement. "It is one thing to learn through experience, as we have, that war is difficult, but another to find that critics are using the war for purely political purposes."



So Halliburton is pissed that the dread liberal is calling them into account for ripping off America and calls it "using the war for political purpouses??!!! Even though the GAO is an impartial source and also concurs with Democrats claims??!

This constant defense of crooks will be the downfall of many I hope.

Last edited by whomod; 2004-06-17 6:51 AM.