Curiouser and Curiouser...
The Reconstruction RacketAmerican Progress Report: August 5th, 2004
$1.9 billion in contracts for Halliburton and other American contractors that were supposed to be financed with money approved by the U.S. have been paid for with Iraqi money. Why? According to The Washington Post, the Iraqi funds "were governed by fewer restrictions and less rigorous oversight." The use of Iraqi money allowed the (now-defunct) U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority "to bypass U.S. contracting rules on competition, oversight and monitoring for controversial projects." One contract was shifted over to Iraqi funds after a company that was contracted to create new media outlets chartered a jet "to fly in a Hummer H2 and a Ford pickup truck for the program manager's use." According to Anthea Lawson, an analyst for Christian Aid, "American firms [were] charging 10 times as much as Iraqi firms for construction work."
CPA DISHONEST ABOUT HOW IRAQI FUNDS WERE SPENT: Previously, the U.S.-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority had claimed "that most of the contracts paid from Iraqi money [from oil sales] went to Iraqi companies." But in total, "at least 85 percent of the total $2.26 billion [of Iraqi money] was obligated to U.S. companies." The contracts awarded to U.S. firms "may be worth several hundred million more once the work is completed."
NO RECORDS, NO COMPETITION: Moreover, newly released documents reveal "the CPA at times violated its own rules, authorizing Iraqi money when it didn't have a quorum or proper Iraqi representation at meetings, and kept such sloppy records that the paperwork for several major contracts could not be found." During the first part of the occupation the CPA "depended heavily on no-bid contracts that were questioned by auditors." Iraqi officials were given "little say in the use of their own country's money." Iraqi companies were not able to "get through the heavily guarded gates of the occupation headquarters in the Green Zone to meet with contracting officers."
HALLIBURTON SHOWERED WITH IRAQI CASH: Most of the Iraqi funds - $1.66 billion – were paid to Halliburton subsidiary KBR to import fuel for Iraq. That contract – tacked onto a no-bid contract – is now "the subject of several investigations after allegations surfaced that a subcontractor for Houston-based KBR overcharged by as much as $61 million for the fuel." Before the KBR contract was expanded, Mohammed Aboush, who was a director general in the oil ministry during the occupation, told the Americans at the CPA "that the Iraqis felt KBR's performance had been inadequate and that he'd prefer that another company take over its work."
INVESTIGATIONS INTO HALLIBURTON MALFEASANCE MOUNT: The SEC announced yesterday "the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission expanded an investigation into payments related to a $5 billion Nigerian contract when the company was led by Dick Cheney." There are allegations that the payments were bribes. Halliburton also faces "a Justice Department investigation into business with Iran when Cheney was chief executive and a Pentagon inquiry into allegations of overpayment in Iraq, where it is now the largest U.S. contractor." On Tuesday, "Halliburton agreed...to pay $7.5 million to settle a commission investigation that said the company secretly changed accounting practices to increase net profit for 1998 and 1999," while the company was under Cheney's control.
THE FORGOTTEN VICTIMS: Stockholders and high-level management have profited handsomely from the enormous government contracts given to U.S. firms in Iraq. Meanwhile, at least 110 contractors working for U.S. firms have died. The number could be even higher: "the Pentagon does not keep an official count, and many companies do not announce when their employees in Iraq are killed." Seven contractors died during the first Gulf War. The death toll this time around has "created an overlooked subculture of war-related grief, one in which contractors' families confront a bureaucracy that is largely inventing procedures on the fly."
posted by Richard at
Thursday, August 05, 2004
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