IG: Halliburton subsidiary abused rules

[Barrett808]

IG: Halliburton subsidiary abused rules
By ANNE PLUMMER FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract performance, according to a report released Friday.

The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root Services routinely marked all information it was giving the government as proprietary, whether it actually was or not. The government promises not to disclose proprietary data so a company's most valuable information is not divulged to its competitors.

By marking all information proprietary — including such normally releasable data as labor rates — the company abused federal regulations, the report says.

In effect, Kellogg, Brown & Root turned the regulations "into a mechanism to prevent the government from releasing normally transparent information, thus potentially hindering competition and oversight."

Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann did not provide immediate comment.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061027/ap_on_go_ot/iraq_contracts

[Frustratedlady]

1. Who learned from who?

Our administration does the same thing...marks everything "classified". They both reek of Cheney.

[ThomCat]

2. Once they figure out how to abuse rules

they all share that strategy around the corrupt business table.
x(

[Barrett808]

3. "Good faith" isn't in the GOP dictionary. n/t