Pentagon: Halliburton Overcharged Millions
By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Pentagon auditors found that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company overcharged by possibly as much as $61 million for gasoline in Iraq, senior defense officials said Thursday.
Halliburton apparently didn't profit from the overcharging, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The problem, the officials said, was that Halliburton paid a subcontractor too much for the gasoline in the first place.
The Pentagon officials said the Halliburton subsidiary involved in Iraq reconstruction work, Kellogg, Brown & Root, also submitted a proposal for cafeteria services that was $67 million too high. The officials said the Pentagon rejected that proposal.
The Pentagon officials said they were concerned about the problems with KBR's contracts, which were awarded without competitive bidding for up to $15.6 billion.
"Contractor improprieties and/or contract mischarging on department contracts will neither be condoned nor allowed to continue," Dov Zakheim, the Pentagon's budget chief, said Thursday.
The defense officials, who are involved in the audit of the contracts, said the Pentagon was negotiating with KBR over how to resolve the fuel overcharging issue.
