WASHINGTON -- Multibillion-dollar Pentagon contracts to support military operations and reconstruction in Iraq have been plagued by inadequate oversight, leading to waste and cost overruns, the government's chief budget investigator told Congress yesterday.
"We have no evidence to say there was willful fraud, based on the work we've done so far," said David Walker, the comptroller-general and head of the General Accounting Office. "But there have been very serious problems."
The agency has not estimated how much federal money has been lost.
Testimony before the House Government Reform Committee focused yesterday mainly on the largest recipient of Iraq-related contracts, Halliburton Co., and the company's largest project, which is to provide meals, housing and other support to the military.
The Halliburton subsidiary KBR has so far received $4.5 billion for activities in Iraq and Kuwait. The company, based in Houston, has received more than $3 billion more to import fuel and repair oil fields. "We saw very little concern for cost considerations," Walker said.
Several examples of waste or overbilling by KBR have come to light. The Pentagon's own auditing office testified yesterday that it has withheld payment of $186 million -- $10 million more than previously announced -- to the company because of evidence that KBR may have billed the Pentagon for 36 percent more meals than it actually provided. The company says it mistakenly overbilled for troop meals by only 19 percent.
But Walker said the Pentagon has repeated many of the same costly contracting mistakes it made in past military actions, as in Kosovo and Afghanistan, but this time on a vaster scale.
NY Times
"We have no evidence to say there was willful fraud, based on the work we've done so far," said David Walker, the comptroller-general and head of the General Accounting Office. "But there have been very serious problems."
The agency has not estimated how much federal money has been lost.
Testimony before the House Government Reform Committee focused yesterday mainly on the largest recipient of Iraq-related contracts, Halliburton Co., and the company's largest project, which is to provide meals, housing and other support to the military.
The Halliburton subsidiary KBR has so far received $4.5 billion for activities in Iraq and Kuwait. The company, based in Houston, has received more than $3 billion more to import fuel and repair oil fields. "We saw very little concern for cost considerations," Walker said.
Several examples of waste or overbilling by KBR have come to light. The Pentagon's own auditing office testified yesterday that it has withheld payment of $186 million -- $10 million more than previously announced -- to the company because of evidence that KBR may have billed the Pentagon for 36 percent more meals than it actually provided. The company says it mistakenly overbilled for troop meals by only 19 percent.
But Walker said the Pentagon has repeated many of the same costly contracting mistakes it made in past military actions, as in Kosovo and Afghanistan, but this time on a vaster scale.
NY Times
