- Halliburton, the engineering group formerly run by US
vice-president Dick Cheney, has been given $1 billion worth of reconstruction
work in Iraq by the US government without having to compete for it, thanks
to repeated delays in opening up a key contract to competition.
-
- The Houston-based company was controversially awarded
a contract to repair Iraq's damaged oil infrastructure without competition
in February.
-
- The cost-plus contract means the amount spent by the
US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which is running the work, is open-ended,
rather than being fixed at the outset, because the scope of the damage
was unknown. The USACE described the contract as a 'bridge to competition',
but original plans to award the work competitively in August have repeatedly
slipped. So far, $1.7bn has been made available to Halliburton for the
work.
-
- Figures obtained from the USACE by Democrat Congressman
Henry Waxman indicate that on 21 August, around the time the contract should
have been opened to competition, the amount made available to KBR, the
Halliburton subsidiary involved, was $704m. Since then the total has risen
by $1.011bn.
-
- Waxman said: 'Since August, when the follow-on contracts
were supposed to be awarded, the administration has obligated more than
$1bn to Halliburton under the oil infrastructure contract. These inexplicable
delays may be good for Halliburton; they are costing taxpayers a bundle.'
-
- The figures have emerged as the UK Government and contractors
reacted with dismay to news this week that competitive tendering had again
been pushed back to between 15 December and 17 January. Previously it was
delayed to mid-October, late October, then year-end.
-
- One leading UK contractor, which made strong representations
in Whitehall this week, said: 'We are very disappointed that it has been
put back again,' adding that the longer the delay, the more KBR benefited.
-
- Brian Wilson, the Prime Minister's special representa
tive on reconstruction, wrote to Blair in advance of President Bush's recent
visit, urging him to press for a level playing field in Iraq.
-
- Wilson said: 'These are very important contracts for
the future of the Iraqi oil industry. We think keeping a level playing
field is very important, and the further delay is regrettable.'
-
- USACE says that the August date was not a deadline for
contract award, but for tenders to be submitted. However, in a letter dated
2 May to Waxman, a US army general states the 'best estimate for the award
of the contract based on this schedule is approximately the end of August'.
According to contract rules, Halliburton can make a margin of up to 7 per
cent on the work.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1101753,00.html
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