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(回答先: 巨額リベート：イラク駐留米軍事業で 石油関連社員２人 (Mainichi) 投稿者 ああ、やっぱり 日時 2004 年 1 月 23 日 22:48:11)
Halliburton Tells Pentagon Workers Took Kickbacks To Award Projects in Iraq
By NEIL KING JR.
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- Halliburton Co. has told the Pentagon that two employees took kickbacks valued at up to $6 million in return for awarding a Kuwaiti-based company with lucrative work supplying U.S. troops in Iraq.
The disclosure is the first firm indication of corruption involving U.S.-funded projects in Iraq and raises new questions about Halliburton's dealings there. The company's work already is being scrutinized because of accusations that the U.S. government was overcharged for gasoline under another controversial contract.
Halliburton has strenuously defended its Iraq work as fairly priced and free of taint. A discovery of kickbacks could expose the company to hefty fines and other punishments such as potential fraud charges. At the least, contracting experts say, Halliburton will be required to reimburse the money.
Any blow could be softened by the fact that Halliburton itself disclosed the misconduct to the Pentagon inspector general's office this week. That disclosure came just days after the top Defense Department auditor asked the office to investigate whether Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root overcharged for fuel deliveries by more than $61 million.
The latest revelation, though, is sure to increase the already intense scrutiny Halliburton has received from congressional Democrats, some of whom charge that the Houston-based company benefited from political favoritism in securing lucrative work in Iraq. The news also is likely to further raise suspicions abroad that Iraq reconstruction work is largely benefiting U.S. companies and their employees.
Vice President Dick Cheney, who was chairman of Halliburton until he left in 2000, defended the company Wednesday in a Fox Radio Network interview. "They get unfairly maligned simply because of their past association with me," he said.
Halliburton stressed that it promptly told the Pentagon of the problem. "The key issue here is self-disclosure and self-reporting," a Halliburton spokeswoman said. "Halliburton internal auditors found the irregularity, which is a violation of our company's philosophy, policy and our code of ethics. We found it quickly, and we immediately reported it to the inspector general. We do not tolerate this kind of behavior by anyone at any level in any Halliburton company." A company statement said the payments were "detected through the company's internal control procedures."
The company has fired the two employees, who were based in Kuwait and whose names were not disclosed. Halliburton said it could not discuss specifics of the matter because of a Pentagon review.
KBR is now repairing Iraqi oil fields and supplying everything from food and laundry services to housing for U.S. troops and coalition officials in Iraq under two huge contracts valued at up to $16 billion. That work has so far cost nearly $6 billion, well over twice what has gone to all of the other 40 U.S. contractors in Iraq, according to government records.
In all, the U.S. has so far funded a total of about $9 billion in Iraqi reconstruction costs, and expects to award contracts valued at another $18.6 billion. Both the congressional general accounting office and the Pentagon are now completing large-scale investigations of all U.S.-funded reconstruction work in Iraq.
The alleged kickbacks involve the same KBR contracting office in Kuwait that handled the controversial gasoline contract. The Pentagon inspector general's office received the disclosure while conducting its own review to decide whether to open a criminal investigation into the gasoline contract. Pentagon officials decline to comment on the status of that investigation.
The current accusations do not involve the gasoline contract. Instead, the Kuwaiti company is said to have paid kickbacks to the KBR officials after winning lucrative subcontracts to help supply U.S. troops in Iraq under what's known as KBR's LogCap contract. U.S. officials declined to provide specifics on the subcontracts involved or the name of the company implicated in the payoffs.
Halliburton said in a statement that its disclosure of what it called a "potential overcharge" was a sign of its "diligence" in managing its Iraq contracts. "KBR will ensure that questionable charges will be credited to the government and will seek recovery from the offending subcontractor."
Halliburton negotiated its current LogCap contract with a very thin profit margin of 1% over costs. It has a maximum bonus of an added 2% available if it delivers the needed services in an expeditious way. But under these so-called cost-plus arrangements, companies have little incentive to rein in costs or to assure that they pick the most competitive subcontractors, since the higher the costs, the higher the profit.
The disclosure comes as Pentagon documents continue to raise broader questions about KBR's financial controls in Iraq. A previously undisclosed Jan. 13 memorandum from a branch office of the Defense Contract Audit Agency labels as "inadequate" KBR's system for accurately estimating the cost of ongoing work in order to justify payments. The memo was sent to various Army contracting officials.
The Pentagon has had to reject two huge proposed bills from KBR, including one for $2.7 billion, because of myriad "deficiencies," the memo says. "We consider [the company's] estimates in the area of subcontracts to be inadequate," the memo says. The agency is now auditing proposed KBR bills totaling $2.1 billion, the memo says.
Pentagon auditors last month said that KBR's Kuwaiti supplier, Altanmia Commercial Marketing Co., was charging the U.S. almost double the market price for gasoline. Auditors said the overcharging amounted to $61 million through September, and as much as $20 million a month since then.
The Army Corps defended the company's hiring of Altanmia in a lengthy Jan. 6 report. The report said KBR had "urgent and compelling needs" to use the Kuwaiti supplier, even at significantly higher prices than other potential suppliers.
Still, Pentagon officials are likely to home in on the circumstances under which KBR hired Altanmia. The Army Corps report says KBR picked Altanmia on May 5 after making phone calls to just two other bidders. Officials say there is no indication of kickbacks involving Altanmia.
A number of anonymous whistleblowers have come forward in recent weeks with often-detailed allegations of KBR wrongdoing in Kuwait, including accusations of paybacks from companies that received lucrative subcontracting work from KBR, according to U.S. officials and congressional sources. These reports in turn have been taken up by the Pentagon's IG office.
The Pentagon's fuel unit, the Defense Energy Support Center, solicited bids Thursday for three fuel-delivery contracts meant to replace the work that KBR is now performing. KBR officials have said for months that they wanted out of the work, which they described as dangerous and not very profitable.
Write to Neil King Jr. at neil.king@wsj.com6
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107481502573909519,00.html
Updated January 23, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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