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Sunday, October 24, 2004

Army to face new investigation related to Halliburton deals

From the Associated Press:

"The Army has agreed to a Pentagon investigation into claims by a top contracting official that a Halliburton subsidiary unfairly won no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars for work in Iraq and the Balkans, according to Army documents obtained Sunday.

The complaint alleges that the award of contracts to KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary, without competition to restore Iraq's oil industry and to supply and feed U.S. troops in the Balkans puts at risk 'the integrity of the federal contracting program as it relates to a major defense contractor.'

It also asks protection from retaliation for the whistle-blower, Bunnatine Greenhouse, chief contracting officer of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Iraq contract with Halliburton has been a focus of the presidential campaign because of Vice President Dick Cheney's past ties to the company. Cheney was chief executive officer of Halliburton and continues to receive deferred compensation from the company...

The Iraq contract was awarded in February 2003, less than a month before the invasion, under a clause specifying no-bid contracts in cases of 'compelling emergency.' The complaint said Greenhouse objected to the five-year term, asking why the certainty that the emergency would continue for five years. "

Full story here.

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