NYT: US Should Repay (KBR/Halliburton) Millions to Iraq, a UN Audit Finds

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S. Should Repay Millions to Iraq, a U.N. Audit Finds
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: November 5, 2005


An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations recommended Friday that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work in 2003 and 2004 assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary.

The work was paid for with Iraqi oil proceeds, but the board said it was either carried out at inflated prices or done poorly. The board did not, however, give examples of poor work....

***

The audits may...come at a bad time for the Bush administration, since Vice President Dick Cheney's former role as chief executive of Halliburton has led to charges, uniformly dismissed by Mr. Cheney and the company, that it received preferential treatment in receiving the contracts. The early Kellogg, Brown & Root contracts in Iraq were "sole sourced," or bid noncompetitively.

"The Bush administration repeatedly gave Halliburton special treatment and allowed the company to gouge both U.S. taxpayers and the Iraqi people," Representative Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat who is the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Government Reform, said in a statement on the new audits. "The international auditors have every right to expect a full refund of Halliburton's egregious overcharges."

Some of those contracts were paid for with American taxpayer money, but others were financed by Iraqi oil proceeds. Because the monitoring board was created to oversee those proceeds, its audits focus only on the work that was financed with Iraqi money. The board consists of representatives from the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Iraqi government....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/05/international/middleeast/05reconstruct.html?hp&ex=1131166800&en=9408dad9cee0fe32&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[bettyellen]

1. isn't it true that they have no idea how much oil- thus money is coming

out of iraq thru halliburton?? as soon as we took over. the meter was broken and they haven't made any attempt to fix it.

[merwin]

2. Didn't KBR misplace a few billion $'s?

[Fairlyunbalanced]

3. Gah

GAH!!!!! Evil evil evil evil evil. I know this is so minor compared to what BushCo has done and continues to do, but it seems like evil is ALL they do. It's so disgusting. It can really be overwhelming sometimes. They make me sick, they really do.

[Marie26]

23. Where did that money go?

It boggles the mind. $9 billion is equal to the total gross national product of some countries. You could run a country w/$9 billion, or build your own customized space shuttle, or a small army. Where did this money go? What was it used for? It almost seems like too much to just be kicked back to Halliburton w/o huge profit discrepencies that make it obvious. Was part of it kicked back to other countries, or the Bush/Cheney election campaign? I wonder if there have been any investigative reports that tracked this down?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

28. That sounds like a good question for Michael Moore...

Why not ask him? http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4779

[Voltaire99]

4. And not merely for thievery, either.

Several billions in reparations, after the German model of apology to Israel, also would be appropriate.

[IChing]

5. I don't understand, shouldn't Halliburton pay this money back vs. the US?

Sorry, I forgot, we should support corporate welfare.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Yeah -- American taxpayers should pay this? nt

[Dark]

6. Bullshit.

Halliburton and those other crooks should have to pay that money back, not us.

[Daphne08]

8. Halliburton, et al. should repay, not the American taxpayer!

[Maggie_May]

9. I do agree

Take it out of the pockets of Bush and Cheney and company. Thats who should pay the money back.

[Vincardog]

10. Agreed KBR should pay it back and TREBLE damages.

If they have any problems with that take the balance from Cheney. Maybe let the BFEE kick in a few BILLION.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. No shit

It's clear Cheney does not have a bum ticker.

He has no heart period.

[brentspeak]

12. This nation needs live televised hearings on Halliburton

We need to see the Men Behind The Curtain with the spotlight on their faces.

[norml]

13. US should refund Iraq for Halliburton work: UN watchdog

US should refund Iraq for Halliburton work: UN watchdog

The United States should reimburse Iraq for $US208 million in apparent overcharges paid to a Halliburton subsidiary, an UN watchdog agency has said.

The International Advisory and Monitoring Board for the Development of Iraq conducted a special audit on Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) unit for the procurement and distribution of fuel products and the restoration of Iraq's oil infrastructure.

The monitoring board cited charges of $US208 million, costs that earlier had been questioned by US military auditors.

In a statement made public on its website on Saturday, the board said it "recommends that amounts disbursed to contractors that cannot be supported as fair be reimbursed expeditiously".

Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann said the US auditors questioned the quality of the supporting documents for the costs, not the costs themselves.


snip


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1498810.htm

[DemInDistress]

14. But where is the money from Iraq's oil sales over

these past 30 months? if as the bush crime family says pump out at
least 1 milloon bbls a day then do the math.its over 700 million bbls
in 30 months and I'm being generous to the family I expect it more.
Meanwhile oil sold for at least 40 bucks a bbl. so where is the money?

[Fridays Child]

15. Actually, Halliburton should make the refund.

Because, according to Bushco, corporations don't need governmental intrusion. All that is necessary is to point them in the right direction and they will do the right thing, voluntarily.

/sarcasm

[sirjohn]

16. What percentage of their total billings would that be?

And what was the conclusion of the military when they questioned the charges?

"The monitoring board cited charges of $US208 million, costs that earlier had been questioned by US military auditors."

[occuserpens]

17. What about UNO4F?

All corruption was supposed to be there...

[Just Me]

18. WAIT ONE DAMN MINUTE!!!

I thought WE were paying Halliburton for the re-building.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS ABOUT?!?!?!

[Trillo]

19. Corporate Welfare.

Welfare for citizens is bad, but corporate welfare is good, very good. (sarcasm)

[NYC]

21. Maybe they're getting paid from both sides.

I can't imagine how much money they are making. (I suspect no one can.)

[Carolab]

20. Where is OUR damn refund? They stole 9 billion bucks from US!

This is insane!!!

[Marie26]

24. Was the $9 Billion Iraqi money?

I think the $9 billion dollars we lost came from Iraqi funds from the Oil-for-Food program, oil sales, and seized assets. So we basically robbed the Iraqis of billions of dollars of their own property.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/

[Carolab]

26. Who the hell knows how much of it was theirs and ours?

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/

The audit did not examine the use of U.S. funds appropriated for reconstruction. The money was supposed to be used to pay for Iraqi reconstruction. We weren't supposed to be paying for that, so where is OUR money--where did it go if they can't account for the CPA money?

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/25/food.annan/index.html

[Up2Late]

22. (UN) Audit says US should repay Iraq ($280 Million) (BBC News)

(It's kind of sad, when a $280 Million Dollar fraud begins to sound like "chump change.")

Sunday, 6 November 2005, 04:30 GMT

Audit says US should repay Iraq

The US should reimburse Iraq up to $208m for work done by a US contractor, a UN watchdog agency has said.

The International Advisory and Monitoring Board said the work by Halliburton had been either overpriced or insufficiently documented. Its recommendation came after it conducted an audit on contracting work by Halliburton's KBR unit in 2003-04.

In response, the energy firm denied overcharging and insisted it had co-operated with the audit. The IAMB has been set up to monitor the spending of Iraq's oil revenues, following the US-led invasion in 2003. It can make recommendations but not decisions on whether reimbursements are made.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4411366.stm>
(more at link above)

[Disturbed]

25. No money left for Iraq resconstruction.

Yet, there is plenty of money for the Military Industrial Machine.

Wasn't a Revolution fought somewhere about taxation?

[leesa]

27. Halliburton steals taxpayer money for a job it doesn't do and the taxpayer

gets to pay for the job not done. Do the crime big enough and you too can be a Republican.