- NEW YORK (Reuters)
-- Halliburton Co. allegedly overcharged more than $16 million for meals
at a U.S. military base in Kuwait during the first seven months of last
year, according to a published report Monday, citing Pentagon investigators
auditing the company's work.
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- Because of the charges, which involve food-service work
done by Halliburton (HAL: Research, Estimates) unit Kellogg Brown &
Root, the Pentagon has extended its audit of KBR food services to include
more than 50 other dining facilities in Kuwait and Iraq, according to an
e-mail sent Friday to more than 12 U.S. Army contracting officials and
reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
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- The company issued a statement Monday, saying it is not
an issue of overcharging, it's "about finding a good way to estimate
the number of meals so soldiers can get fed. It's difficult to determine
how many people will be at the dinner table in the middle of a war zone
and the number must be based on estimates."
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- "We plan, purchase and prepare meals based on estimates.
At times, soldiers are on leave or troops are shifted to other locations."
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- Last month, the Houston-based oil field services company
admitted workers may have taken kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor
supplying U.S. troops in Iraq, causing a potential $6 million overcharge
to U.S. taxpayers. It sent a $6.3 million check to the U.S. Army Materiel
Command, its customer, to cover potential overcharging.
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- According to the Journal, the latest dispute involves
meals served at Camp Arifjan, a large U.S. military base south of Kuwait
City. In the e-mail memo that went out Friday, it said that in July alone,
a Saudi subcontractor hired by KBR billed for 42,042 meals a day on average
but served only 14,053 meals a day, the paper said.
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- In response to the allegations, KBR agreed privately
Friday to repay the money until the company can prove that its billing
procedures were appropriate, the paper said, citing people familiar with
the situation.
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- http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/02/news/companies/halliburton.reut/index.htm
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