- WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon
has asked the Justice Department to investigate the Halliburton oil services
group's activities in post-war Iraq - a step which can only increase the
pressure on the company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney.
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- The senior Democrat on a congressional committee probing
the awarding of Iraqi contracts has released documents showing that Halliburton
made faulty estimates on a $2.7bn (£1.5bn) contract to provide services
for US troops in the Gulf, and that company executives admitted as much.
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- The release of the documents came after the first hearings
by the House Committee for Government Reform on how reconstruction contracts
are allocated. For critics, Halliburtonhas become the symbol of alleged
profiteering by well connected companies.
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- According to Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the
committee and a bitter foe of Halliburton, the documents revealed "systemic
problems" with the contracts. But Republicans and senior Pentagon
officials said the process was functioning as well as could be expected.
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- The latest shortcomings to be revealed include Halliburton's
failure to tell contract managers that the company had halted two subcontracts
for feeding troops, which affected $1bn worth of work. Nor did it inform
managers it had awarded $142m of subcontracts for work it later said would
cost $209m.
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- Other controversies over Halliburton's work in Iraq include
an alleged kickback scheme that led the company to fire two workers and
reimburse the Pentagon $6.3m. Halliburton is also accused of overcharging
for food services, for which it re-imbursed the Pentagon $30m.
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- A separate government audit alleges Halliburton's subsidiary
Kellogg Brown & Root overcharged the Pentagon by $61m for petrol for
the civilian market in Iraq in 2003. The company says the prices were correct.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=500704
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