June 16, 2004 – A Pentagon audit has found "significant" over-billing by Halliburton and its subsidiaries in Iraq and Kuwait, which may amount to $8 billion. Halliburton employees told Congressman Henry Waxman that subcontractors billed $100 for a 15-pound bag of laundered clothes, and abandoned $85,000 trucks by the roadside when they experienced simple maintenance problems, including a flat tire. Halliburton and its subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, have been the source of repeated claims of over-billing since last spring. The first scandal involved a March 2003 no-bid contract worth up to $7 billion, which they received ostensibly to fight oil fires in Iraq. In December 2003, KBR was caught charging the US army $1.59 per gallon for oil imported from Kuwait, Iraq?s neighbour, for which it paid only 70 cents per gallon. A few weeks later KBR was caught over-billing the US army by $16 million for soldier?s meals, according to Le Monde Diplomatique.
In addition to the $7 billion oil-fire contract, KBR also billed $4.5 billion for unrelated logistics contracts in Kuwait and Iraq, the Financial Times reported. Vice-President Dick Cheney, former Halliburton head, still receives deferred income from the company and holds 433,000 stock options.
