Army to Let Halliburton Keep Iraq Payment

[Jon8503]

Friday October 22, 6:00 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Army is laying the groundwork to let Halliburton Co. keep several billion dollars paid for work in Iraq that Pentagon auditors say is questionable or unsupported by proper documentation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

According to Pentagon documents reviewed by the Journal, the Army has acknowledged that the Houston-based company might never be able to account properly for some of its work, which has been probed amid accusations that Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root unit overbilled the government for some operations in Iraq.

The company has hired a consulting firm to estimate what Halliburton's services should cost, the report said.

The newspaper, citing the documents and internal memorandums, said that officials are considering using the estimate to serve as the basis for "an equitable settlement," under which the Pentagon could drop many of the claims its auditors have made against the company.

http://money.iwon.com/ht/nw/bus/20041022/hl_bus-n22693953.html?PG=home&SEC=news

[whistle]

1. That is very generous of the U.S. Army, it must be hard to hold...

...a big corporation accountable especially when so many bribs are exchanging hands under the table. Oh well, the social security surplus can be used to fund it. Have to keep the moral and spirits up of our fighting men and women who have to go on dangerous missions without proper equipment, protection and support. Bastards!

[Murph Tha Genius]

2. Third World Defense Contractors

This one really gets me. Anybody remember when news reports were coming out saying that the Army paid $300.00 for a hammer? This stuff is nuts. It's another contradiction that I see among Republicans. All of them are saying "we want lower taxes," which is a good thing to say because not many people (including myself) like paying taxes. At the same time they say this, they let the biggest contract for Iraq go without a ceiling and without competition meaning that the government just spent a whole bunch of money that we have to pay for with our taxes. It totally stuns me. What's even worse is the mis-spending that contractors and sub-contractors alike are guilty of. If any of you have been to Iraq, you will notice quite a few Indians, Jordanians, Phillipinos, Pakistanis, and Mongolians that are doing the most menial labor for sub-contractors of KBR. They pump gas, pump shit, cook, and pick up trash for much less than a soldier does, while at the same time, the contractors have an unseemly amount of "supervisors" that drive around the desert in air conditioned SUVs, with new cell phones and forty five inch waist lines, doing nothing important that I ever saw. And all that stuff, save the waist line, was paid for by you. I could get more in depth with what I have seen, but I don't feel like sitting here all night, chat me up if you're interested.

[Wickerman]

3. and all that stuff, save the waist line, was paid for by you - LOL

nice one, except, of course, KBR and Halliburton have been siphoning govt money for so long that I think we can goahead and give ourselves credit for the the gluttons, too.

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[izzie]

4. As we bleed into a third world country.

I'll Be dead when you people are still trying to figure out how much this Bush and Co. took from us. Good luck.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. Hell...It's Only Money!

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