Sheryl Elam Tappan has broken a cardinal rule of the private contractors who work for the federal government: Don't criticize your client. The consultant and former Bechtel Corp. employee has published a book that accuses the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of handing Halliburton extra oil- field repair work in Iraq through what she calls a sham competition slanted against other companies.
...
Tappan argues that the corps' actions violated federal contracting law. Her anger about it runs throughout her book, "Shock and Awe in Fort Worth." "It may be simpleminded, but if you're going to make contractors abide by the law, then the government ought to do the same," Tappan said, in an interview at her San Mateo home.
At the time of the competition, Halliburton already was operating in Iraq, making oil field repairs under an earlier contract. Halliburton, where Vice President Dick Cheney was once chief executive, had locked up most of the future oil field repairs as well, through a plan the company's KBR subsidiary hashed out with the corps and the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, Tappan writes. Other companies seeking the contract didn't even see that plan until two weeks before the bidding deadline.
...
"I kept waiting for this story to hit the news, and it never did," she said. "I just felt very passionate about getting it out."
...
'Competition was a fraud'
...
The corps' actions, Tappan believes, violated federal procurement law by giving one company -- Halliburton -- vital information weeks before its competitors.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/29/BUGUO7UNGB1.DTL
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
