DOD audits show $212M in overcharges for Halliburton Iraq work News
DOD audits show $212M in overcharges for Halliburton Iraq work

[JURIST] American oil services company Halliburton [corporate website; JURIST news archive] may have overcharged the Defense Department at least $212 million for its work providing fuel to Iraqi citizens, according to portions of Defense Contract Audit Agency [official website] audits released Monday by Rep. Henry Waxman [official website], ranking member of the House Committee on Government Reform. In a letter [PDF text] sent to Rep. Christopher Shays, chairman of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Security, Waxman says that the audits "add to the mounting evidence of waste, fraud and abuse involving" the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) and show that the Bush administration has withheld an extensive amount of information from the International Advisory and Monitoring Board [official website], the audit oversight body for the DFI. Waxman has also requested that Shays' committee hold hearings on the administration's mismanagement of the DFI. The latest audit figures come a month after an earlier DCAA audit had found $108 million in Halliburton overcharges [JURIST report], and barely four weeks after the US Justice Department charged a ex-employee of a Halliburton subsidiary with overcharges defrauding the US government of some $3.5 million [JURIST report]. The Committee on Government Reform Minority Office has background on Iraq reconstruction and a press release on the audit findings. Reuters has more details on the latest audit findings.

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