Halliburton Announces Record Profits While Administration Continues to Rebuff Congressional Oversight
President Bush has consistently promoted open and competitive procurement practices for U.S. government contracts. But the government announced yesterday that Halliburton's original no-bid contract for oil-related work would be renewed until at least the end of the year, despite an assertion in the spring by the Army Corps of Engineers that the contract was "designed from the outset as a bridge to competition."
President Bush's support for transparent procurement has been a feature of his small business agenda. The White House website includes an undated page titled, "Save Taxpayers Dollars by Ensuring Full and Open Competition to Government Contracts" and argues that "Contracting should be accomplished through full and open competitive procedures." Bush even acknowledged last year the difficulties small businesses face, saying, "that agencies sometimes, many times, only let huge contracts with massive requirements, and they tend to go to the same group of large corporate bidders."
The announcement of the contract extension came one day after Reps. Henry Waxman and John Dingell sent a letter to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice questioning whether Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root was overcharging U.S. taxpayers to import gasoline, citing a figure of $2.65 per gallon of gasoline imported into Iraq. The congressmen assert the cost is three times greater than it should be.
The letter to Dr. Rice, the coordinator of the Iraq Study Group, was another attempt by Congress to get the administration's response to concerns of overcharging by Halliburton and lack of oversight. Two inquiries to OMB Director Joshua Bolten and one to the Corps of Engineers sent starting in late September remain unanswered.
Concerns about KBR's charges to taxpayers will likely continue. Wednesday, Halliburton announced the KBR unit's profits rose four-fold and sales leapt 80 percent in the 3rd quarter, and Thursday, a new study questioned the connection between campaign contributions to Bush and reconstruction contracts for Iraq and Afghanistan awarded to companies including Halliburton.
Having your former CEO as Vice-President means never having to say you're sorry for gouging the American taxpayer. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to look for a handkerchief. That last Halliburton commercial I saw brought me to tears. I had NO idea that Halliburton was such an altruistic and selfless organization....
