We'z Gutta Git Us One Dem Dar G'ment Contracts

Army to Pay Halliburton Unit Most Costs Disputed by Audit

The federal government must think us hicks and fools to believe that any part of these no-bid/no review contracts are not full of waste and gouging.

The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for nearly all of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon's own auditors had identified more than $250 million in charges as potentially excessive or unjustified.

The Army said in response to questions on Friday that questionable business practices by the subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, had in some cases driven up the company's costs. But in the haste and peril of war, it had largely done as well as could be expected, the Army said, and aside from a few penalties, the government was compelled to reimburse the company for its costs.

It might be worth the millions it might take to develop a defense contractor firm if we can get in good with the Bush administration and those folks that look the other way when we gouge the hell out of the price for goods and services. My wife is an accountant who puts tight controls on corporate expenditures. Why don't we have a whole slew of independent bean counters looking over the books of defnse contractors?

Under the type of contract awarded to the company, "the contractor is not required to perform perfectly to be entitled to reimbursement," said Rhonda James, a spokeswoman for the southwestern division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, based in Dallas, where the contract is administered.

Perfectly my eye. These folks are not performing well, never mind perfectly:

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Auditors Find Widespread Waste and Unfinished Work in Iraqi Rebuilding Contracts - 31 JAN 06

A sweeping examination of thousands of contracts that the United States underwrote with Iraqi money has provided the most comprehensive look yet at the confusion, waste and lack of accountability in rebuilding and training programs during the first years of the American-led occupation, say the Iraqi finance minister and a retired American officer who led an investigative arm of the audit.

The effort, which is being undertaken by a contracting office in Baghdad that reports to the United States Army and which has not previously been disclosed, began in March 2005 and is close to completion. Previous audits have focused more narrowly on construction contracts and work done in specific areas of Iraq.

The audit of about 9,000 contracts worth at least $5.8 billion in Iraqi oil money and assets seized from Saddam Hussein's government was undertaken to determine how much of the money originally set aside for the work should ultimately be paid.

The contracts in the new examination cover everything from purchases of pistols, radios and four-wheel-drive vehicles for the Iraqi Army to construction of hospitals and power lines to support fledgling Iraqi media outlets.

The examination exposed a system riddled with problems, like projects that were assigned but never carried out and Iraqi subcontractors who did not know they had been awarded jobs, the American officer, Scott Meehan, a retired Army major, said yesterday. He worked on the project from March through August 2005, when roughly 2,000 of the contracts were examined.

Ali Allawi, the Iraqi finance minister, said in a telephone interview over the weekend, "I think you're seeing chaos, basically," and added, "No matter how you cut it, it's very poor project design and implementation."

Mr. Allawi said the American administration brought with it a contracting procedure that may have worked in the orderly environment of the United States. "Once you brought it in the context of Iraq," Mr. Allawi said, "it fell flat on its face."

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Back to our regular story:

The contract has been the subject of intense scrutiny after disclosures in 2003 that it had been awarded without competitive bidding. That produced criticism from Congressional Democrats and others that the company had benefited from its connection with Dick Cheney, who was Halliburton's chief executive before becoming vice president.

No bid, no effective review, audits that show gouging but still result in payment, and no real controls over how the money is being spent. I have to find a customer or a boss that will let me get away with that sort of business practice.

Later that year auditors began focusing on the fuel deliveries under the contract, finding that the fuel transportation costs that the company was charging the Army were in some cases nearly triple what others were charging to do the same job. But Kellogg Brown & Root, which has consistently maintained that its costs were justified, characterized the Army's decision as an official repudiation of those criticisms.

Oh, my God! Gouging at the gas pump... even in oil-rich Iraq!

"Once all the facts were fully examined, it is clear, and now confirmed, that KBR performed this work appropriately per the client's direction and within the contract terms," said Cathy Mann, a company spokeswoman, in a written statement on the decision. The company's charges, she said, "were deemed properly incurred."

What Mann is saying is that it is not that KBR has done anything wrong, it's that the contract is so bogus and faulty that there isn't anything that Haliburton or KBR could do to muck it up. Yep. That is the Republican leadership watching our tax dollars. But hey, what are friends of Dick Cheney and Dubya for if not to assure that we keep our "biggest and bestest" corproations working hard at ripping off the taxpayers.

Keep up the good work... BTW... How big is our deficit now?