Halliburton scandal unfolding further... yes HALLIBURTON:
Halliburton Faces Probe Over No-Bid Contracts
Associated Press
October 28, 2004 6:38 p.m.
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton Co., seeking an interview with a top Army contracting officer and collecting documents from several government offices.
The line of inquiry expands an earlier FBI investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq, and it elevates to a criminal matter the election-year question of whether the Bush administration showed favoritism to Vice President Dick Cheney's former company.
FBI agents this week sought permission to interview Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer who went public last weekend with allegations that her agency unfairly awarded a Halliburton subsidiary no-bid contracts worth billions of dollars in Iraq, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.
Asked about the documents, Ms. Greenhouse's lawyers said Thursday their client will cooperate but that she wants whistleblower protection from Pentagon retaliation. "I think it [the FBI interview request] underscores the seriousness of the misconduct, and it also demonstrates how courageous Ms. Greenhouse was for stepping forward," said Stephen Kohn, one of her attorneys.
"The initiation of an FBI investigation into criminal misconduct will help restore public confidence," Mr. Kohn said. "The Army must aggressively protect Ms. Greenhouse from the retaliation she will encounter as a result of blowing the whistle on this misconduct."
FBI agents also began collecting documents from Army offices in Texas and elsewhere in recent weeks to examine how and why Halliburton got the no-bid work in places like Iraq.
"The Corps is absolutely cooperating with the FBI, and it has been an ongoing effort," said Army Corps spokeswoman Carol Sanders. "Our role is to cooperate. It's a public contract and public funds. We've been providing them information for quite a while."
Wendy Hall, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said the company is cooperating with various investigations, but she dismissed the latest revelation as election politics. She noted Congress's auditing arm, the Government Accountability Office, found the company's no-bid work in Iraq was legal.
"The old allegations have once again been recycled, this time one week before the election," Ms. Hall said. "The GAO said earlier this year that the contract was properly awarded because Halliburton was the only contractor that could do the work.
"We look forward to the end of the election, because no matter who is elected president, Halliburton is proud to serve the troops just as we have for the past 60 years for both Democrat and Republican administrations," she said.
www.wsj.com
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI has asked to interview a whistle-blowing Army contracting official as part of an investigation into billions of dollars of Iraq-related contracts awarded to Halliburton Co., her lawyer said on Thursday.
Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer, went public this week with complaints that U.S. officials improperly favored Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root for work in Iraq and the Balkans.
Bunnatine's attorney Michael Kohn said he was seeking to make sure that Greenhouse was given protection as a whistle-blower before she meets the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI declined comment. A spokeswoman for the Corps of Engineers, Carol Sanders, said she knew nothing of an FBI investigation.
Halliburton, run by Dick Cheney before he became U.S. vice president, is bogged down in a billing dispute over its logistics work in Iraq involving everything from feeding troops to delivering fuel.
Cheney ran Houston, Texas-based Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. The company's work in Iraq has become a target for the Democrats ahead of the presidential election Tuesday.
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the company was working with all investigations related to the delivery of fuel to Iraq under its contract with the army.
The "old allegations" raised by Greenhouse had once again been recycled ahead of the election, she said. In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Halliburton previously disclosed a related U.S. Justice Department investigation.
Kohn said he understood from the FBI it had launched its investigation into KBR's Iraq-related work before Greenhouse complained of "repeated interference" in the award of Halliburton contracts.
At issue, among other things, was a no-bid contract worth up to $7 billion given to KBR to rebuild Iraq's shattered oil industry in March 2003.
This deal, along with one to feed and house U.S. troops in the Balkans, put at risk "the integrity of the federal contracting program," lawyers for Greenhouse said in a letter to Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee made public this week.
A draft Army audit last December found the company overcharged by about $61 million to bring fuel into Iraq. The investigation later moved to the Justice Department.
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