FBI Widens Probe of Halliburton

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Washington Post reports: (Full story here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7606-2004Oct28.html?nav=rss_nation )

FBI Widens Probe of Halliburton
Agents Interested In Big KBR Contract

By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 29, 2004; Page E01

The FBI has expanded an investigation into allegations of contract irregularities by Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. in Iraq and Kuwait.

The FBI requested an interview with a Pentagon official who complained recently that the Army gave KBR preferential treatment when granting it a $7 billion classified contract to restore Iraq's oil fields just before the war began in March 2003, her lawyers said yesterday.

The Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root won a $7 billion no-bid contract for work in Iraq. (Pat Sullivan -- AP)

The request comes at a sensitive time because Vice President Cheney once was Halliburton's chief executive and Democrats have accused the Bush administration of favoring the giant oil-services company.

The FBI wants to discuss allegations by Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, a senior Army Corps of Engineers civilian responsible for ensuring contracting competition. She said Army officials did not justify the award or show that KBR had "unique attributes," as required by procurement law, according to a letter her lawyers wrote to acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee and provided to members of Congress.

The letter said Army officials ignored her repeated complaint that the contract was granted without following normal procedures. It also said the Army allowed KBR representatives to participate in meetings "outside the scope of information KBR should be privy to," before the contract was awarded...........

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Good. I would be very interested in knowing if the allegations concerning Halliburton and its contracts are true. The more that is known, the better.

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A lot of the reason for the no-bid award was that these were the only contractors qualified to do the work. There are a number of contractors as, or better qualified to do the rebuilding and the oil field work. This is a blatant trashing of the FAAR guidelines .
If Bush wins another term (god forbid), I believe that this will become an issue of corruption and possible raacketeering that could roll right to the white house.
This could possibly open the door on critical investigations on the many crappy regulations that were secretly promulgated by congress under direction of bush's handlers and were quietly inserted into the C record without discussion because the GOP has engineered the closure requirements to omit the other party.

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MSNBC Report: Full story here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6356265/

Oct. 29: The FBI wants to interview a Pentagon whistleblower who came forward in the investigation of Iraq rebuilding contracts with Halliburton, Vice President Cheney's former company.

Army staffer: Halliburton case 'worst abuse'

FBI widens investigation, company sees election ploy in allegations

- An Army contracting officer who led the FBI to widen its investigation of Pentagon contracts to Halliburton told NBC News that she had never seen a worse case of contracting abuse.

"It was the worst abuse of the procurement and contracting system that I have seen," Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers? chief contracting officer, told NBC in an exclusive interview.

Halliburton dismissed the allegations as election politics. Sen. John Kerry's campaign has seized on the allegations to accuse the Bush administration of playing favorites. Vice President Dick Cheney headed Halliburton before taking office.

FBI agents this week sought permission to interview Greenhouse after she alleged that her agency unfairly awarded KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars for work in Iraq.

The line of inquiry expands an earlier FBI investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq, and it elevates to a criminal matter the election-year question of whether the Bush administration showed favoritism to Cheney?s former company.

Whistle-blower protection sought
Greenhouse's lawyers said Thursday their client will cooperate but that she wants whistle-blower protection from Pentagon retaliation.

'I think it (the FBI interview request) underscores the seriousness of the misconduct, and it also demonstrates how courageous Ms. Greenhouse was for stepping forward,' said Stephen Kohn, one of her attorneys.

'The initiation of an FBI investigation into criminal misconduct will help restore public confidence,' Kohn said. 'The Army must aggressively protect Ms. Greenhouse from the retaliation she will encounter as a result of blowing the whistle on this misconduct.'

FBI agents also recently began collecting documents from Army offices in Texas and elsewhere to examine how and why Halliburton, a Houston-based oil services conglomerate, got the no-bid work.

'The Corps is absolutely cooperating with the FBI, and it has been an ongoing effort,' said Army Corps spokeswoman Carol Sanders. 'Our role is to cooperate. It's a public contract and public funds. We've been providing them information for quite a while.'

The FBI declined to comment Thursday, but a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the investigation does not involve anyone in the White House including Cheney's office.

Halliburton's response
Wendy Hall, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said the company is cooperating with various investigations, but she dismissed the latest revelation as election politics. She noted Congress' auditing arm, the Government Accountability Office, found the company's no-bid work in Iraq was legal.

'The old allegations have once again been recycled, this time one week before the election,' Hall said. 'The GAO said earlier this year that the contract was properly awarded because Halliburton was the only contractor that could do the work.'

'We look forward to the end of the election, because no matter who is elected president, Halliburton is proud to serve the troops just as we have for the past 60 years for both Democrat and Republican administrations,' she said.

Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems, asked if investigators had contacted the vice president or his office about the contracts, said they had not.

Democrats have tried to make Halliburton an election-year issue, and vice presidential candidate John Edwards quickly seized upon the latest development.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee who has been investigating Halliburton's contracts, said his office was told the FBI recently sought documents from various government offices. The requests focused on how and why Halliburton got the Iraq contracts.

'This multibillion-dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton was suspicious from Day One, and now our worst suspicions are confirmed,' Lautenberg said. 'The FBI doesn?t get involved unless there are possible criminal violations.'

E-mail ties Cheney office to contract
In a formal whistle-blower complaint filed last week, Greenhouse alleged the award of contracts without competition to KBR puts at risk 'the integrity of the federal contracting program as it relates to a major defense contractor.' The contracts were to restore Iraq?s oil industry.

Among the evidence cited in the complaint was an internal 2003 Pentagon e-mail that says the Iraq contract 'has been coordinated? with Cheney's White House office.........

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"New audit slams Halliburton work in Kuwait
Contractor could not account for third of items billed

Updated: 3:46 p.m. ET Oct. 28, 2004

WASHINGTON - Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root, the U.S. military's biggest contractor in Iraq, could not account for over a third of the items it handled in Kuwait under a work order for the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq, said an audit released Thursday.

The audit by the Inspector General for the Coalition Provisional Authority, said a random sample of 3,032 records of items valued at more than $3.7 million, projected KBR could not account for 42.8 percent, or 1,297, of these goods.

Items that could not be accounted for included three generators valued at more than $172,000 and seven vehicles valued at over $219,000, the audit found.

The auditors recommended the military's Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), which disagreed with the finding as did KBR, should reevaluate KBR'S property control system.

While the numbers are small in the context of billions of dollars of work being done by KBR in Iraq, they add to criticism of the company run by Vice President Dick Cheney until he joined the race for the White House in 2000.

KBR is bogged down in a billing dispute with the U.S. military over its logistics contract in Iraq and the company's lucrative work there has become a focus by the Democrats in the buildup to next Tuesday's election.

Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall disputed the audit's findings and said the facts showed KBR had done a good job......."

Full story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6355144/

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I love it. Brown and Root , in the 80s , was also associated with a series of govt contraact discrepencies that involved misuse of funds under "Superfund" cleanup contraacts. A number of companies were involved in spending on lavish parties, boats, expensive trips and other percs to executives. This is the first time , however, that such compaanies were allegedly involved in profiteering under wartime conditions. If true, The "Greenhouse effect" could topple the Bush administration

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Greenhouse effect?

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yeh, the name of the nwhistleblower was Greenhouse. Isnt that ironic for this admin?

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bunny quotes

Quote:

"It was the worst abuse of the procurement and contracting system that I have seen," Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers? chief contracting officer, told NBC in an exclusive interview.

Halliburton dismissed the allegations as election politics. Sen. John Kerry's campaign has seized on the allegations to accuse the Bush administration of playing favorites. Vice President Dick Cheney headed Halliburton before taking office.

FBI agents this week sought permission to interview Greenhouse after she alleged that her agency unfairly awarded KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars for work in Iraq.

I refreshh your memory.

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Arrrrrr - thankee - cute (in the old, Yankee sense).

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Aside from Halliburton doing business with Saddam in the late '90s and with "Terrorist Iran" now, aside from the no-bid contracts in Iraq and overcharging scandals, Halliburton has also been under investigation for a few months with regards to bribes and kickbacks in Nigeria:

Quote:

Halliburton Admits Bribes 'May Have Been Paid' in Nigeria
Agence France Presse

Monday 08 November 2004

Washington - US oil service firm Halliburton has acknowledged that improper payments "may have been made" to Nigerian officials through a consortium of which it was a member.

In a document dated Friday and filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Halliburton said the US Justice Department had expanded its investigation into potential bribes through the TSKJ consortium, a matter also under review in France and Nigeria.

"We understand from the ongoing governmental and other investigations that payments may have been made to Nigerian officials," the company said in the SEC filing.

It noted that investigators were scrutinizing the role by British lawyer Jeffrey Tesler, who has been reported to have funneled as much as 132 million dollars from the consortium, and from Halliburton's former consultant A. Jack Stanley, fired in June.

"We understand that the Department of Justice has expanded its investigation to include whether Mr. Stanley may have received payments in connection with bidding practices on certain foreign projects," Halliburton said.

TSKJ is a private limited liability company registered in Portugal comprising Technip of France, Snamprogetti Netherlands, an affiliate of the Italian group ENI, JGC Corporation of Japan, and Kellogg Brown and Root, which was acquired by Halliburton in 1998.

The company is currently under investigation in the United States for allegedly contemplating bribing Nigerian officials to win a lucrative natural gas project some 10 years ago.

The alleged payments, many of which occurred when Halliburton was being run by Dick Cheney, now the US vice president, helped a consortium including the US group to win a 12 billion dollar contract to build a gas terminal.

Halliburton has denied that its top executives were involved in any wrongdoing.

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Wow...get that. Haliburton corrupt?
I'm shocked [insert heavy, heavy, sarcasm].

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FBI Widens Probe of Halliburton

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