Watchdog Cites More Halliburton Failings in Iraq

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Pentagon (news - web sites) auditors found numerous irregularities in a no-competition deal given by U.S. authorities to Halliburton Co. and paid for with Iraqi oil money, an international watchdog disclosed on Tuesday.



Audits covering five work orders worth $812 million made last year by Iraq (news - web sites)'s U.S.-led administration "highlight many shortcomings including noncompletion of the required technical evaluations, unsupported costs and overstated costs," the International Advisory and Monitoring Board said.


The Texas oil services company was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) between 1995 and 2000, and its cost overruns on contracts linked to the U.S. invasion of Iraq became an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.


Halliburton has denied any wrongdoing and says the criticisms are motivated by politics.

In light of the audits by the U.S. Defense Contract Audit Agency, the board said it had ordered a special audit of all sole-source Halliburton work, to be completed in early 2005.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041214/pl_nm/iraq_oil_watchdog_dc&cid=615&ncid=1480

No, they aren't, Yes, they are...

WASHINGTON - Iraq (news - web sites) is still plagued with gaps in tracking its oil production and weak controls over spending in various government ministries, the board established to monitor Iraq finances reported Tuesday.



The International Advisory and Monitoring Board also said it was awaiting a special audit early next year covering contracts awarded to Halliburton and other firms without competitive bidding.


The board noted that weaknesses in controls over oil included the absence of meters to determine how much oil was being pumped from wells in Iraq. The audit board also said there were inadequate controls at major Iraqi government ministries over such things as payroll and monitoring of contracts.


"As a matter of priority, the financial reporting and control systems need to be improved in key Iraqi disbursing industries, including the State Oil Marketing Organization, and the regional governments to overcome the identified control weaknesses," the board said. "Controls need to be strengthened over oil extraction, as the principal source of income of Iraq."

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=2&u=/ap/20041214/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_audit

panel includesofficials from: United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Iraqi interim government.

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 15, 2004; Page A27

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 15 -- Pentagon auditors concluded that Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., charged "unsupported" and "overstated costs" in more than $800 million in U.S.-administered projects financed by Iraqi oil revenue, according to a report issued Tuesday by a U.N.-appointed financial oversight board.

The chairman of the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB), Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, said that it was impossible to determine the extent of alleged overcharges because the figures had been redacted from a series of five Pentagon audits presented to the board last month. But he said that he had agreed to a U.S. proposal to appoint an independent auditor to conduct a "special audit" of all contracts awarded to Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) and other companies without competitive bidding.


The international board was created by the U.N. Security Council in May 2003 to monitor the U.S.-led coalition's management of Iraq's oil revenue. It had been pressing the Pentagon for months to release the audits of KBR as part of a broad effort to ensure that Iraq's oil revenue has been properly spent. The U.S. company had been awarded at least $1.4 billion from Iraqi revenue to repair the country's oil facilities and to import fuel for domestic uses, according to Halbwachs.

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Rose-Ann L. Lynch, declined to release an estimate of the overcharges cited in the audit, calling the information "proprietary in nature." She said that the United States and KBR both approved the redacted versions of the audits presented to the IAMB.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64784-2004Dec14.html

Petroleum geologists who studied the oil fields after the fall of Baghdad came to the conclusion that the Iraqi oilfields had been permanently damaged from poor practices during the sanction years and production is irreversibly reduced by as much as 50% for the long term.
To add insult to injury since the US took control the wells have been pushed harder than ever further compounding the problem.
Typical Rep mindset, short term gain with no concern about the effect on the future.