Qtec
12-12-2003, 12:16 AM
[ QUOTE ]
Audit: Halliburton overbilled millions
Pentagon questions charges for two contracts
By MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
RESOURCES
Check stock quotes.
Enter ticker for Halliburton: HAL
• Halliburton's Web site
WASHINGTON -- Houston-based Halliburton Co. may have overbilled taxpayers by as much as $61 million for trucking gasoline into Iraq, Pentagon auditors said Thursday.
The Pentagon's Defense Contract Audit Agency said Halliburton also may have tried to charge the government $67 million more to manage cafeterias for U.S. troops than the company had agreed to pay the subcontractors hired to actually do the work.
In the military's first public criticism of Halliburton subsidiary KBR since the company went to work in Iraq, Pentagon officials said Thursday that they had discovered "serious problems" with the company's costs and demanded a detailed response.
"Right now the burden is on the company to come back and say why this has happened," a senior Pentagon official said.
The Pentagon has refused to pay the $67 million difference in the cafeteria bill and has told Halliburton that the company could have to forfeit the $61 million in fuel overcharges.
The Defense Department, however, has not become so concerned that it has stopped handing Halliburton work. On Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revealed it had assigned Halliburton another $222 million project to repair oil pipelines and a water treatment facility in Iraq.
The company has not been accused of fraud or any other kind of intentional wrongdoing, Pentagon officials said
<hr /></blockquote>
I wonder how much the totall cafeteria bill is.
Q
Audit: Halliburton overbilled millions
Pentagon questions charges for two contracts
By MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
RESOURCES
Check stock quotes.
Enter ticker for Halliburton: HAL
• Halliburton's Web site
WASHINGTON -- Houston-based Halliburton Co. may have overbilled taxpayers by as much as $61 million for trucking gasoline into Iraq, Pentagon auditors said Thursday.
The Pentagon's Defense Contract Audit Agency said Halliburton also may have tried to charge the government $67 million more to manage cafeterias for U.S. troops than the company had agreed to pay the subcontractors hired to actually do the work.
In the military's first public criticism of Halliburton subsidiary KBR since the company went to work in Iraq, Pentagon officials said Thursday that they had discovered "serious problems" with the company's costs and demanded a detailed response.
"Right now the burden is on the company to come back and say why this has happened," a senior Pentagon official said.
The Pentagon has refused to pay the $67 million difference in the cafeteria bill and has told Halliburton that the company could have to forfeit the $61 million in fuel overcharges.
The Defense Department, however, has not become so concerned that it has stopped handing Halliburton work. On Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revealed it had assigned Halliburton another $222 million project to repair oil pipelines and a water treatment facility in Iraq.
The company has not been accused of fraud or any other kind of intentional wrongdoing, Pentagon officials said
<hr /></blockquote>
I wonder how much the totall cafeteria bill is.
Q