F.B.I. Investigating Contracts With Halliburton

[papau]

October 29, 2004
THE BILLIONS
F.B.I. Investigating Contracts With Halliburton
By ERIK ECKHOLM

he Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether the Army's handling of a large Iraq contract with the Halliburton Company violated procurement rules, according to lawyers for an Army official who made the charges of improprieties.

F.B.I. agents have requested an interview with the official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, the chief of contracting with the Army Corps of Engineers, on her allegations regarding a 2003 contract with Halliburton to repair Iraqi oil fields, her lawyer, Michael D. Kohn, said in an interview yesterday.

Ms. Greenhouse, in an Oct. 21 letter to the acting Army secretary, charged that officials had shown favoritism toward Halliburton, the Houston-based conglomerate formerly led by Vice President Dick Cheney, in the awarding and oversight of the oil contract. She also said officials at the Army Corps of Engineers had tried to remove her as chief contract monitor after she raised persistent questions about Halliburton contracts. The Army says it has referred her letter to the Pentagon's inspector general for review.

The oil contract was awarded in early 2003 without competition to the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, as the American-led invasion of Iraq began, and was initially for five years and up to $7 billion. <snip>


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/29/politics/29contract.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=

[papau]

1. Halliburton Contracts Bypassed Objections

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-halliburton29oct29,1,4288990.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

Halliburton Contracts Bypassed Objections
By T. Christian Miller Times Staff Writer October 29, 2004

WASHINGTON — <snip>Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer, questioned a decision by commanders to award a contract extension to Halliburton, the oil services company run by Dick Cheney until he became vice president, without the competitive bidding designed to protect U.S. taxpayers. <snip>

"I cannot approve this," Greenhouse wrote on one version of the proposal that is filled with her handwritten scrawls such as "Incorrect!"; "No! How!"; and "Not a valid reason."

Greenhouse, who was threatened with demotion after raising objections to the Halliburton contract, sent her complaints to acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee. Portions of her letter to Brownlee were obtained by Time magazine last week.

The Times has obtained previously undisclosed documents describing the nature of her objections to the Halliburton contract and e-mail discussions among Army Corps officials.

Despite Greenhouse's objections, the Army Corps on Oct. 8 awarded Halliburton the $165-million extension allowing Halliburton's subsidiary KBR to continue providing logistics services to troops stationed in the Balkans.

The final approval did not carry Greenhouse's signature, as normally required by contracting regulations. Instead, it was signed by her assistant, Lt. Col. Norbert Doyle, according to the documents.<snip>

[wishlist]

2. Whistleblower Greenhouse on MSNBC says "worst favoritism ever seen"

There will be a full interview with her on Tom Brokaw NBC news tonight, but MSNBC had an excerpt with her already where she talks about the favorable treatment of the Halliburton contract as being the worst she has ever seen in her career working with govt contracting.