- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Halliburton
Co. HAL.N , the oil services group once led by Vice President Dick Cheney,
has been given nearly $500 million of work in Iraq so far, a congressman
said on Thursday, complaining that most of this was via an "obscure
and lucrative" 2001 contract to the Texas firm.
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- Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, wrote to Acting
Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee on Thursday and asked why the military
was relying so much on Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown &
Root.
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- "It is simply remarkable that a single company could
earn so much money from the war in Iraq," said Waxman, ranking minority
member on the House Committee on Government Reform.
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- Questions have been raised over the role of Halliburton
in Iraq and whether its close ties to the administration helped secure
work. The White House strongly rejects this claim.
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- Waxman said he had been given defense department information
that Kellog Brown & Root received over $425 million from the Army for
work in Iraq under an "obscure and lucrative" contact given in
Dec. 2001.
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- This contract, called the Logistics Civil Augmentation
Program (LOGCAP), is to provide logistical support to the Army "in
wartime and other operations," according to a Pentagon news release
from December 2001.
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- "One of the unique features of the LOGCAP contract
is that it apparently allowed Halliburton to profit from virtually every
phase of the conflict with Iraq," said Waxman.
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- A Halliburton spokeswoman said the LOGCAP contract was
a continuation of a program first awarded to the company in 1992, long
before Cheney served as the firm's chief.
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- "To suggest that either Halliburton or any of the
firms that support the Department of Defense advocate war in order to make
money is an affront to all hard working, honorable Halliburton employees,"
the spokeswoman added.
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- The work in Iraq under LOGCAP is in addition to a contract
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair and operate oil wells in
Iraq, worth more than $70 million so far. The ceiling on this contract
is $7 billion.
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- "When the contracts are combined, the total amount
that Halliburton has received to date for work related to Iraq is now nearly
$500 million," said Waxman.
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- Waxman asked what safeguards the Army had implemented
to prevent excessive charges to the government and also what procedures
were in place to prevent cost overruns by the firm. A General Accounting
Office study in 1997 of LOGCAP had identified cost overruns by the company,
he said.
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- The Army was not immediately available to comment on
the letter sent by Waxman or the LOGCAP contract.
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