Halliburton Co. allegedly overcharged more than $16 million for meals at a single U.S. military base in Kuwait during the first seven months of last year, according to Pentagon investigators auditing the company's work.
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This dispute focuses on meals served at Camp Arifjan, the huge U.S. military base south of Kuwait City. The e-mail memo that went out Friday said that in July alone, a Saudi subcontractor hired by KBR billed for 42,042 meals a day on average but served only 14,053 meals a day. The difference in cost for that month exceeded $3.5 million, according to Pentagon records. The Pentagon last year paid KBR more than $30 million for meals at the camp from January through July, a tab that included charges for nearly four million meals the government asserts were never served. Pentagon officials couldn't provide an estimate for the total cost of feeding troops in Iraq.
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Instead of formally paying back the money, KBR will deduct the sum from future bills to the U.S. government, a common practice when contractors agree to reimburse overcharges.*
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In television spots that began to appear last month, Halliburton highlighted the work it is doing supporting the U.S. Army under the slogan, "Halliburton, proud to serve our troops." In one ad, a U.S. soldier is shown talking on the phone and blurting out to his fellow soldiers, "It's a girl!"
KBR's troop-catering work falls under the large logistics contract the company won during 2001. Work in Iraq and vicinity tied to that contract has so far amounted to about $3.8 billion. KBR is also doing repair work on Iraq's oil fields and delivering fuel supplies from Kuwait and Turkey, under the Army Corps of Engineers contract that has cost more than $2 billion so far.
*And they get to keep the money! Overcharges are "deducted" from future overcharges. Such a deal for Halliburton — only 543 Americans had to die so far.
Oddly enough, Hallibuton refuses to say how much it cost to have an actor play a soldier and gush, "It's a girl!" in a Halliburton image ad.
