Shipping was extra a lot extra
KBR spent millions getting $82,100 worth of LPG into Iraq
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Iraq needed fuel. Halliburton Co. was ordered to get it there quick. So the Houston-based contractor charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel.
In the latest revelation about the company's oft-criticized performance in Iraq, a Pentagon audit report disclosed Monday showed Halliburton subsidiary KBR spent $82,100 to buy liquefied petroleum gas, better-known as LPG, in Kuwait and then 335 times that number to transport the fuel into violence-ridden Iraq.
Pentagon auditors combing through the company's books were mystified by this charge.
"It is illogical that it would cost $27,514,833 to deliver $82,100 in LPG fuel," officials from the Defense Contract Audit Agency noted in the report.
The portions of the audit report released Monday did not specify exactly how much fuel was involved in this billing.
The portions of audit report were released by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., both dogged critics of Halliburton and its wartime contracts.
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the figures were taken out of context.
"The implication is definitely misleading," Hall said. "Transporting fuel into Iraq was a mission fraught with danger, which increased the prices that firms were willing to offer for transportation."
Halliburton has seen 61 of its workers and subcontractors die in Iraq and Kuwait, many while delivering fuel.
Army officials were desperate to get fuel into Iraq, fearing the lack of such basic necessities as cooking and heating fuel would lead to greater unrest and support for the insurgency.
But efforts to truck in fuel were hampered by repeated attacks on fuel convoys, delays organizing military escorts, supply route closures and changing delivery points, company officials said. Security was so dicey, in fact, that tanker trucks were lucky to make two round trips per month.
And because neighboring Kuwait had few trucks available to transport fuel, Halliburton had to bring in trucks from neighboring countries and contract for a barge, Hall said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3085603
I hope they will be able to recover some of the tax money. That's why we
need a smaller government size. They don't care enough about our money.
KBR spent millions getting $82,100 worth of LPG into Iraq
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Iraq needed fuel. Halliburton Co. was ordered to get it there quick. So the Houston-based contractor charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel.
In the latest revelation about the company's oft-criticized performance in Iraq, a Pentagon audit report disclosed Monday showed Halliburton subsidiary KBR spent $82,100 to buy liquefied petroleum gas, better-known as LPG, in Kuwait and then 335 times that number to transport the fuel into violence-ridden Iraq.
Pentagon auditors combing through the company's books were mystified by this charge.
"It is illogical that it would cost $27,514,833 to deliver $82,100 in LPG fuel," officials from the Defense Contract Audit Agency noted in the report.
The portions of the audit report released Monday did not specify exactly how much fuel was involved in this billing.
The portions of audit report were released by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., both dogged critics of Halliburton and its wartime contracts.
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the figures were taken out of context.
"The implication is definitely misleading," Hall said. "Transporting fuel into Iraq was a mission fraught with danger, which increased the prices that firms were willing to offer for transportation."
Halliburton has seen 61 of its workers and subcontractors die in Iraq and Kuwait, many while delivering fuel.
Army officials were desperate to get fuel into Iraq, fearing the lack of such basic necessities as cooking and heating fuel would lead to greater unrest and support for the insurgency.
But efforts to truck in fuel were hampered by repeated attacks on fuel convoys, delays organizing military escorts, supply route closures and changing delivery points, company officials said. Security was so dicey, in fact, that tanker trucks were lucky to make two round trips per month.
And because neighboring Kuwait had few trucks available to transport fuel, Halliburton had to bring in trucks from neighboring countries and contract for a barge, Hall said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3085603
I hope they will be able to recover some of the tax money. That's why we
need a smaller government size. They don't care enough about our money.
