Senator Asks for Audit of Iraq Contracts
Tue October 21, 2003 02:50 PM ET
By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading Democratic senator said on Tuesday he had asked the General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm, to audit billions of dollars in contracts awarded to U.S. firms to rebuild Iraq.
Michigan Sen. Carl Levin released a copy of a letter he sent to the GAO in which he voiced concern that "important safeguards" had been ignored and excessive rates charged for work done under contracts in Iraq paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
"We need an independent audit of these issues to ensure that the taxpayers' hard-earned money is not being wasted," said Levin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Most contracts for Iraq have been issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development or the Army Corps of Engineers, whose main contractor is a subsidiary of Texas company Halliburton, once run by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Both of these government departments have come under heavy criticism over how contracts were handed out to rebuild Iraq, particularly ones given without any competition. Both departments say they have been fair in awarding contracts.
Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root has so far clocked up more than $1.5 billion from its no-competition contract issued in March to rebuild Iraq's oil industry and Levin said this deal was the most worrying of all to him.
Levin asked the GAO to look at, among other issues, how the contracts were awarded, profit margins, how much work was given to subcontractors and to what extent the U.S.-led authority in Iraq relied upon expensive consultants.
GAO spokesman Jeff Nelligan said his office was looking at a broad range of issues in Iraq, including contracting.
On a related issue, two Democratic lawmakers released information they said showed Halliburton was overcharging for oil products imported into Iraq, a claim the company rejects.
In a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, California Rep. Henry Waxman and Michigan Rep. John Dingell said Iraq's state-owned oil company, the State Oil Marketing Organization, was paying between 90 and 98 cents per gallon to import gasoline versus more than $1.59 billed by Halliburton.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service also has said Halliburton was likely charging too much for oil imports.
The lawmakers called for an Army investigation.
They also questioned why some money to buy oil products was coming from the Iraq Development Fund, which should be used for humanitarian needs and "not to enrich Halliburton." |
