US Army to end contract with Halliburton

[Steve Savicki]

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,105260,00.html

Will this hurt Uncle's Dick more: his pocket or his reputation? LOL

[diamondD]

LOL Wonder how long this one has to live?

[Little Texan]

US Army to End Contract With Halliburton
Agence France-Presse | July 12, 2006
The US Army will not renew its contract with Halliburton, the oil service giant formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Army spokesman Randy King told the daily paper Halliburton had done "an outstanding job," as the chief defense contractor in Iraq but Pentagon chiefs had decided they did not want "all our eggs in one basket".

He said the Texas-based, the US military's biggest contractor in Iraq, would be replaced when its contract comes up for renewal at the end of September.

After that the work will be split among three companies with a fourth firm hired to oversee the work of the other three.

Through its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root Services Inc. (KBR), Halliburton is the US military's main contractor in providing food, shelter and communications to its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also handles most of the US reconstruction effort in Iraq.

King said multiple contractors would offer better prices, more accountability and greater protection should one of the contractors fail to perform.

The paper said Halliburton would be allowed to bid on the new contracts, which are expected to attract large companies including weapons makers Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.

Democrats have alleged the company, once managed by Cheney, enjoyed preferential treatment for government contracts, and that it overcharged. The company and Cheney have rejected the allegations.

Army spokesman Dave Foster said contracts for reconstruction work will be allowed to finish but will not be extended after September.

"The Iraq reconstruction effort is winding down ... so there is no need for new contracts to replace the existing," he said adding that the Iraqi government was expected to do its own contracting work.

The US army last year paid seven billion dollars (5.5 million euros) to KBR for its logistics work, The Washington Post said quoting private consulting firm Eagle Eye Inc.

In late 2003, the US Congress allocated more than 18 billion dollars for reconstruction projects in Iraq, said the daily.

[Nickdfresh]

STEVE, DO YOU NEED DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO CUT AND PASTE?? I will gladly PM you directions...

Edit*Thanks Little Texan*

[Little Texan]

Why didn't they just allow competing bids to begin with? Oh, that's right, Dickhead Cheney had to have his cut!

[bastardog]

All that money runing like rivers in this stupid war......and I still here with my same stupid salary. Do I have to start my own war to make money? or do I have to just keep playing loterry?

[stringfelowhawk]

Wanna hear something ironic? I was being recruited by Haliburton as an electronics tech but turned them down cause I don't want to leave a organization run by a criminal to work for a whole criminal organization.

That would be like leaving the Aryan Nation to join the NAACP! They're both racist.

[FORD]

Originally posted by stringfelowhawk
Wanna hear something ironic? I was being recruited by Haliburton as an electronics tech but turned them down cause I don't want to leave a organization run by a criminal to work for a whole criminal organization.

Especially when it's basically the same criminals running both.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by bastardog
All that money runing like rivers in this stupid war......and I still here with my same stupid salary. Do I have to start my own war to make money? or do I have to just keep playing loterry?

People would far more be outraged if they knew the public works projects that are being gutted or underfunded in order to fund this War...

[blueturk]

Yet another election year move....

[Steve Savicki]

<center>Army to Rebid Halliburton Contract

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,105359,00.html

WASHINGTON - The Army will rebid the multibillion-dollar contract under which a Halliburton Co. subsidiary has been providing services to troops around the world after years of complaints over how the deal has worked in Iraq.

Critics of the contract said the move was overdue and that hundreds of millions of dollars had probably been wasted.*

Halliburton subsidiary KBR, also known as Kellogg Brown and Root, provides food, water, shelter, laundry service and other logistical support for troops under a 2001 contract that has been extended several times.

Halliburton is a Texas-based oil services conglomerate once led by Vice President Dick Cheney. Bush administration officials have come under fire since the beginning of the war in Iraq for awarding more than $10 billion to the company and its subsidiaries in 2003 and 2004, some of it in no-bid contracts. There have been allegations of fraud, poor work, overpricing and other abuse, which the company has denied.

Army spokesman Dave Foster said Wednesday that although the service will rebid the contract, it has not decided yet how that will be done. KBR would be allowed to bid in the new competition, but one option Army officials are considering is to divide the work among three companies.

Asked why the contract was being discontinued, Foster said it was part of the Army's "lessons learned" process.**

"The Army lives on 'lessons-learned.' We get better each and every time we do it," Foster said. "There's discussion under way that there may be - may be - a better way of doing this. If you open it up to as many as three bids, that offers more open competition."

Halliburton spokeswoman Melissa Norcross said it was "neither unusual nor unexpected that the ... contract may be replaced with another competitively bid approach."

KBR's achievements in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan have been "nothing short of amazing," she said, noting that KBR has prepared nearly 375 million meals, washed more than 18.5 million bundles of laundry and transported hundreds of millions of gallons of military fuel for troops in America's two ongoing wars.

Shares of Halliburton Co. stock declined on the New York Stock Exchange on the news, dropping 70 cents to close at $74.88.

"It has taken them far too long," Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said of the Army. "I believe literally hundreds of millions, and probably billions, of dollars have been wasted - it's almost an unbelievable amount of waste and abuse and likely fraud."

Earlier in the day in a speech on the Senate floor, he held up a hand towel that he said cost double what it should have because the company "wanted its name embroidered on the towels given to the troops."

"Taxpayers can breathe easier knowing that the days of $45 cases of soda and $100 bags of laundry are coming to a close," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

The Washington Post reported the decision to end Halliburton's contract Wednesday, saying the Army had paid KBR $7 billion under the contract last year and is expected to pay between $4 billion and $5 billion this year.

Halliburton's Norcross said KBR - with some 50,000 employees and subcontractors in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Djibouti - has won outstanding performance ratings from the government for its work under the contract. </center>

*How much money has been wasted on this entire war?

** Yeah, and a costly price was that lesson learned.

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by blueturk
Yet another election year move....

Yeah...just like Hillary Clinton being seen with a bible and saying religion is important to her.

[knuckleboner]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
Yeah...just like Hillary Clinton being seen with a bible and saying religion is important to her.

it is important to her.

cause right now, prayer's about the only thing that will help her win the general...