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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3986281&pageNumber=0
Bush Thinks U.S. Overcharged in Halliburton Contract
Fri December 12, 2003 06:01 PM ET
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, seeking to deflect criticism from the controversy surrounding Halliburton contracts in Iraq, said on Friday he believed a subsidiary overcharged the U.S. government for fuel deliveries to Iraq by $61 million, and expected it to be repaid.
Bush told reporters the Pentagon was investigating the overcharge after an audit found Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root unit overcharged the U.S. Army by $1.09 per gallon for nearly 57 million gallons of gasoline for Iraqi citizens.
"Their investigation will lay the facts out for everybody to see. And if there's an overcharge, like we think there is, we expect that money to be repaid," Bush said.
Critics of the Bush administration say Halliburton, the Houston-based oil company where Vice President Dick Cheney was chief executive, has unduly benefited from its government connections. The fuel deliveries fall under a contract awarded, without competition, to Halliburton in March.
Democrats are using Halliburton as a symbol of what they view as big business profiting from the Bush administration while regular citizens are short-changed.
Howard Dean, running for the Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters in Council Bluffs, Iowa, that there should be an independent investigation of Halliburton's alleged overcharging and ties to the Bush administration.
So far the company has generated about $2 billion in business from a March contract and more than $2 billion from a logistics contract for which it supplies services ranging from delivering mail to doing laundry for U.S. troops.
"I would like to see such an investigation," Dean said. He said there was "an appearance of impropriety."
Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, also a Democratic presidential candidate, called on the Defense Department over a month ago to seek reimbursement from Halliburton for amounts it has overcharged the U.S. government.
"At a time of soaring federal deficits, we can ill afford to line the pockets of well-connected corporations at the expense of the American taxpayer," he said on Friday.
Halliburton defended its work and said it welcomed a full review. Chairman and Chief Executive Dave Lesar denied the company had overcharged the government, citing Army Corps of Engineers audits.
Bush said: "I appreciate the Pentagon looking out after the taxpayers' money. They felt like there was an overcharge issue. They put the issue right out there on the table for everyone to see and they're doing good work. We're going to make sure that as we spend the money in Iraq that it's spent well, spent wisely."
"PRESIDENT FOR BIG OIL"
Democrats charged the case showed Bush was coddling Halliburton at the same time Bush was excluding Iraq war opponents from U.S.-funded reconstruction contracts in Iraq.
The Bush administration has decided to bar Iraq war opponents like France, Germany and Russia from competing for $18.6 billion in U.S.-funded reconstruction projects in Iraq.
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark's campaign attacked what it called "the Bush administration's ties to Halliburton."
"George W. Bush is a president for Big Oil, of Big Oil, and 'buy' Big Oil. He is more concerned about the success of Halliburton than having a success strategy in Iraq," said Chris Lehane, a communications strategist for Clark.
New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg wrote this week to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, to repeat his request for hearings on Halliburton's Iraqi reconstruction contracts, especially the size of the no-bid contract.
Collins has previously declined the request. Her aides said she was unavailable on Friday.
"This is the sweetheart deal of the century that is grossly wasting taxpayer dollars. It's time for the vice president and the rest of the Administration to come clean on the Halliburton backroom deals," Lautenberg said through a spokesman.
Copyright Reuters 2003.
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