Griffe Witte in the Washington Post, here, discusses the continuing problem of overcharges for contract work in Iraq connected with Halliburton and its Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) subsidiary. According to the report, Congressman Waxman's staff released documents yesterday, not previously available from the government's investigations of overcharges, that show "increasing irritation with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root Inc. as schedules slid, costs multiplied and the company balked at meeting demands for accurate cost estimates." Halliburton's defense was apparently that these are "old issues" since the State Department had concluded last July that "Halliburton had been 'satisfactorily addressing most of the issues.'" HMMMM. "addressing most issues" doesn't sound like adequate compliance for a company whose government contract accounting practices have been questions as far back as the Vietnam War.
The following links provide information on the ongoing saga of Halliburton overcharges. For background on overcharges on Iraq contracts at Halliburton, see the documents posted at the Committee on Government Reform Minority Office Website, here, an October 2005 summary of Iraq reconstruction at the DCCC, here. and a 2003 BBC news story on overcharges (quoting Bush's statement that Halliburton would be expected to repay any overcharges), here. For information on concerns about overcharges by KBR in connection with Katrina-related contracts, see here. For an interesting history of overcharges in connection with Vietnam-era contracts by Brown & Root (predecessor of today's KBR), see this NPR story, here. For information about the Pentagon's approval of waivers for Halliburton even in the face of a history of concerns about overcharges, see HalliburtonWatch, here, and CommonDreams, here. At one point, Administration officials redacted a Pentagon report to conceal information about Halliburton overcharges. See this March 2005 Committee on Government Reform posting, here. For more information about Cheney relationship with Halliburton, also see this story at CommonDreams, here. You can also check out Daily Kos for a good bit of relevant information, anytime, here.
Waxman's solution--legislation that would limit sole-source contracting (see this story)--sounds like a reasonable one. There should also be better enforcement when sole-source contractors fail to keep adequate records to support their claims for payment from the federal government.