Audit: Halliburton overbilled millions

From the Houston Chronicle:

Houston-based Halliburton Co. may have overbilled taxpayers by as much as $61 million for trucking gasoline into Iraq, Pentagon auditors said Thursday.

The Pentagon's Defense Contract Audit Agency said Halliburton also may have tried to charge the government $67 million more to manage cafeterias for U.S. troops than the company had agreed to pay the subcontractors hired to actually do the work.

In the military's first public criticism of Halliburton subsidiary KBR since the company went to work in Iraq, Pentagon officials said Thursday that they had discovered "serious problems" with the company's costs and demanded a detailed response.

Here's the kicker:

The Defense Department, however, has not become so concerned that it has stopped handing Halliburton work. On Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revealed it had assigned Halliburton another $222 million project to repair oil pipelines and a water treatment facility in Iraq.

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Of course, the DoD is the outfit that was paying hundreds of dollars for toilet seats and common hardware a few years back--old habits die hard, I guess. But don't worry about it, because:

Bush says Halliburton must pay up

Again from the Houston Chronicle:

Bush applauded the Pentagon's efforts to try to ensure U.S. tax dollars are used appropriately in Iraq.

"They felt like there was an overcharge issue," he said. "They put the issue right out there on the table for everybody to see, and they're doing good work."

Plain and simple, that's our President. Our evil Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was even more to the point:

"There was no overpayment to any company," Rumsfeld said. "And, in fact, there is a fairly normal process going on.

How typical. How the hell can he be so sure? I guess he goes over all the billing records himself...kinda like he did with pre-war intelligence. Here's the kicker for this article:

Halliburton shares rose 77 cents or more than 3 percent Friday to close at $25.46.

Jesus. It never ends.

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