Halliburton in $16M food probe

[UpInArms]

http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/02/news/companies/halliburton.reut/

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Halliburton Co. allegedly overcharged more than $16 million for meals at a U.S. military base in Kuwait during the first seven months of last year, according to a published report Monday, citing Pentagon investigators auditing the company's work.

Because of the charges, which involve food-service work done by Halliburton (HAL: Research, Estimates) unit Kellogg Brown & Root, the Pentagon has extended its audit of KBR food services to include more than 50 other dining facilities in Kuwait and Iraq, according to an e-mail sent Friday to more than 12 U.S. Army contracting officials and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

Last month, the Houston-based oil field services company admitted workers may have taken kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor supplying U.S. troops in Iraq, causing a potential $6 million overcharge to U.S. taxpayers. It sent a $6.3 million check to the U.S. Army Materiel Command, its customer, to cover potential overcharging.

...more...

[lazarus]

1. ya know

War profiteering used to be considered just a half step below treason.

[mbperrin]

6. Far as I'm concerned,

it IS treason - it shifts resources from war goods into profits for fat cats at home, leaving troops in the field with less than they would have otherwise.

And even though I think this war is totally BS, I bear no ill will toward any soldier there; in fact, BRING 'em home! Now!

[NJCher]

2. three cents on the dollar

stay on message, dubya.


Cher

[pinniped]

3. Silly wabbits. When will these people learn that Halliburton knows...

people in high places?

[0007]

9. ....and silly wabbits know that Halliburton is scamming with folks like..

...junior and his Cheney, and junior and Cheney have nepotism problems that the whole world knows.

[FloridaPat]

4. The're getting paid $28 per person per day to prepare meals.

That should be steak every day and lobster once a week. What does COngress do all day?

[lovedems]

5. Overcharging for gas, overcharging for food. What's next?

What else to they do? It looks they overcharge for just about everything and the employees get kickbacks for getting the contracts that makes all of this possible.

Halliburton and their subsidiaries should be completely removed from any and all reconstruction. They can go back to doing business with terrorist nations.

[central scrutinizer]

10. here's another example

http://www.registerguard.com/cgi-bin/printStory.py?name=d1.cr.defazio.0130&date=20040130

excerpt:

DeFazio found the military efforts in the country more compelling than that of civilian administrators. "I'm not impressed with the civilian side. They're hunkered down in a complex and don't get out," he said.

But in the area known as the Sunni Triangle that includes Balad and Tikrit, DeFazio said, the Army is overseeing rebuilding efforts that have employed Iraqis and brought real change.

There he saw a cement plant up and running that Halliburton had said would cost $26 million and take a year to build, but that Iraqis had put together for $70,000 in just a few months.

[gulfcoastliberal]

15. They charge $80 for a sheet..

..of plywood that really costs $13- Bastards.

Edited to add this link:
http://www.dailycollegian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/12/12/3fd96aae3121c

[bullimiami]

7. criminals / war profiteers

halliburton should have long ago been banned from all government contracts in the least.

bush mafia corrupts absolutely

andy
miami

[salin]

14. off the top of the head tally:

2002 fined for overcharging fed govt in millions.

2003 charged with over charging 61 Million for gas importation

2003/04 self-disclosed employees taking 6.3 in kickback/bribes for contracts - given back to govt (but the stories never mention a review of said contract - and any repayment for overcharges in that particular contract.

Now this over charge.

Yet VP CHeney keeps rakin' in the dough from Halliburton's coiffers as 'delayed compensation' (is he giving it all to charity as he once vowed?)

And now we also learn that Halliburton is involved in tax evasion plans that border illegality - and are used to go around the spirit of US law and do business with regimes targeted by this admin as supporting terrorist activities (under cheney - business with Saddam; continued business with Syria and IRan and others.)

Oh- the company of Dick Cheney - emulating the dignity restored to the White House :eyes:

[farmbo]

8. I've talked to GIs on leave...the food packets (MREs) are from Mexico

...they contain unidentifiable food-like substances...and they absolutely taste like s%#!.

There must be a special place in hell for war profiteers like Halliburton and Cheney.

[enough]

11. Why do they keep getting contracts?

Oh, never mind.

Wasn't war profiteering (by some other name) on the list of those crimes that US contractors were exempted from by executive order a while back? Or was that actually a law? Can anyone remind me about that?

I don't understand why other corporations aren't screaming about this -- corporations that are not getting the juicy Iraq contracts.

[jamesinca]

13. It is something that this administration removed

It was a crime before the Iraq invasion. The language was removed to protect the profiteers.

[farmbo]

18. It's called debarrment...If a domestic contractor overcharges by 50 cents

...they're prohibited from further federal government contracts.

But Halliburton has friends in high places; and they're quite content with ignoring legal (and moral)safeguards.

[havocmom]

12. Halliburton is holding our military personnel as hostages.

The survival of our troops depends on supplies and if Halliburton is responsible for getting supplies to them.... Cheney has arranged for the US taxpayers to pay ransome in the hopes of keeping our loved ones in uniform alive. The profiteers are not doing the job well and our troops are at risk because of their greed.

US troops are in harms way because Halliburton and other corporations want resources of soverign nations under their control. They skimp on the goods and services they have contracted to supply in order to assure the highest profit margin. They have instigated violence, they perpeuate it and they achieve their illegal ends through it. Far as I can see, that makes Halliburton and their ilk terrorists.

The US military used to be able to do their own logistic support. Sure there were problems along the way, humans being humans and some being greedy. But at least there was some control and accountability. There were also less layers of entities taking their cut.

Turning the lifelines to troops over to private corporations and then letting those corporations steal from the US treasury is abuse of our military and the taxpayer/families from which the military comes!

This business of "we will start a war on false premisis and you guys can bring your own damed Kevlar and gator aid" is just obscene. Time for true patriots to kick these corporate slimballs back to the ooze from which they came.

[54anickel]

16. Well, they're getting name recognition anyway. Sheesh.

:eyes: kick

[DinahMoeHum]

17. Reports of filthy conditions at a US base in Iraq. . .

Here's the thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1000375

and here's the original article:
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/010804/cover0108.html

Read it and puke.

:puke:

[Judi Lynn]

19. Halliburton subsidiary agrees to temporary halt in billing for troop meals

Halliburton subsidiary agrees to temporary halt in billing for troop meals




By Robert Burns
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:37 p.m. February 2, 2004

WASHINGTON – A Halliburton Co. subsidiary has agreed to stop billing the government for feeding U.S. troops in Kuwait until the two sides settle what the company says is an accounting dispute. Pentagon auditors are raising the possibility of overcharging.

Halliburton said in a statement Monday that its Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary agreed to suspend billing "while the company works with the government to improve the counting method" for meals served.

The company had been charging the government for the projected number of meals instead of the actual number served. Pentagon auditors are questioning whether that amounted to overcharging, since the projected number of meals was significantly higher than the number served.

Halliburton said, however, that the issue was how to improve meal planning, not how much was charged.

The Kellogg Brown & Root decision to stop billing for meals until the matter is resolved is "not any sort of admission" of wrongdoing, Halliburton's statement said. "It is an agreement to temporarily delay billing while KBR and the government jointly determine the best way to estimate how many meals to prepare."
(snip/...)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20040202-1437-halliburton-pentagon.html