TELL THE TRUTH. WHO IS SURPRISED BY THIS REVELATION? SURELY NO-ONE. :mad: kk
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 - The United States should reimburse Iraq for $US208 million in apparent overcharges paid to a Halliburton Co subsidiary, an United Nations watchdog agency says.
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board for the Development of Iraq conducted a special audit on Halliburton’s Kellogg, Brown and Root unit for the procurement and distribution of fuel products and the restoration of Iraq’s oil infrastructure.
The monitoring board cited charges of $US208 million, costs that earlier had been questioned by US military auditors.
In a statement made public on its website yesterday, the board said it recommends that amounts disbursed to contractors that cannot be supported as fair be reimbursed expeditiously''. Halliburton's spokeswoman, Cathy Mann, said the US agency's questioned the quality of the supporting documents for the costs - not the costs themselves. Therefore, it would be completely wrong to say or imply that any of these costs that were incurred at the client’s direction for its benefit are ‘overcharges’,’’ Mann said.
The monitoring board can make recommendations but not decisions on whether reimbursements are made.
Iraq’s oil account, called the Development Fund for Iraq, was set up by the UN Security Council, along with the monitoring board, to watch over the stewardship of Iraq’s natural resources during the US civil administration of Iraq.
The monitoring board’s life was extended after an appointed transitional Iraqi government took over on June 29, 2004.
In May, the board noted with regret'' that Pentagon auditors had tried to hide from it more than $US200 million in apparent overcharges in contracts paid for with Iraqi oil money and awarded on a noncompetitive basis to Halliburton, a company once led by US Vice-President Dick Cheney. US military auditors had turned over heavily edited audits to the board, saying the deletions were made to protect trade secrets. An unedited version of the audit later surfaced, showing the deletions sought to conceal questionable billings. In its recent statement, the monitoring board also said the process to substantiate these expenditures is still ongoing’’.
The board said a total of 24 ``sole sourced’’ contracts involving more than $US5 million for a total of $US1.963 billion had been carried out from late June 2003 to late June 2004.
Of those contracts, KBR had a contract worth $US1.367 billion and carried out 10 task orders but the monitoring board’s statement did not specify the quality of KBR’s work.
The board said it met in Amman, Jordan to discuss the matter on October 4 and 5.
What do you think the Iraq war is about anyway?? It’s about the personal enrichment of the folks running the country right now, who, by the way, ran Halliburton (Cheney) and Bechtel (Rumsfeld).
Amazing how these contracts just happened to be awarded without competitive bids and how these same scurrilous pigs were already caught charging their own army over 2.50 a gallon for gas they bought in Kuwait for 15 cents per. And, of course, there was not enough time to allow for competitive bids against the same two in New Orleans either, although they did find time to legislate a lowering of the minimum wage for people forced to work for them.
Oh! did I forget to mention that they cheated the troops by overcharging on their meals as well? Of course, when caught flat out, they were just told to repay the “overage”. No arrests. No charges.
These investigators act like we’re talking millions here, when really, it’s tens, if not hundreds of BILLIONS.
This is the systematic rape and looting of a whole country.
Didn’t you do the same thing to Ben’s Bench Press workout at Seoul? Just a joke…
Does anyone know the direct link between Dick and the profits from Halliburton?It’s nice to throw punches at those who use companies that they are familar with but I think tax records should be used to indicate the link between profits. Michael Moores records are available and his “living on peanuts” was BS when he was getting 50k grants like crazy in college.
My beef is why I am sending money and shampoo to the soldiers and the feds are charging for it!
SURELY NO-ONE. :mad: kk