Defense Contract Audit Agency

WASHINGTON -- Halliburton's own auditors warned of problems with the company's contract to deliver fuel in Iraq even before Pentagon investigators raised similar concerns, a Democratic presidential candidate said. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut said a Pentagon official told him that Halliburton was refusing to turn over copies of the internal audit, which Defense Department investigators found but did not copy. Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said that the internal audit was confidential and that a Pentagon auditor may have broken the law by reading it. Hall said the audit...

WASHINGTON - The Army’s primary support contractor in Iraq is being warned by Pentagon auditors to cut its work force there or face nearly $200 million in penalties for keeping thousands too many on the payroll. The Houston-based KBR Inc., responsible for everything from mail and laundry to housing and meals, has increased employee levels while US troops steadily leave the country after more than six years of war, the audit says. As a result, the US government is paying far more in labor costs in Iraq than it should as military resources are shifted to Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON -- Halliburton Co. acknowledged to Pentagon auditors that it provided faulty cost estimates last year for $2.7 billion in services to American troops in Iraq and Kuwait, according to documents released by the Defense Department yesterday. Those problems included a failure to tell contract managers that Halliburton had terminated two subcontracts for feeding troops, which affected costs on $1 billion worth of that work, the Defense Contract Audit Agency found. Halliburton also did not tell contract managers it had already awarded subcontracts worth $141.5 million for work it told the...

WASHINGTON - A massive contract to support US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan received a withering review yesterday, as a special panel investigating waste and fraud in wartime spending was told of numerous deficiencies in the arrangement that has paid KBR Inc. nearly $32 billion since 2001. Testifying before the bipartisan Wartime Contracting Commission, April Stephenson, head of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, said her agency has referred at least 16 reports since 2004 of suspected fraud or improper conduct stemming from the contract to government investigators.

WASHINGTON -- About $10 billion has been squandered by the US government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned yesterday that significantly more taxpayer money is at risk. The three top auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State Department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses, and payments for shoddy work or work never done.

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon and congressional investigators found widespread problems with Halliburton's cost estimates for billions of dollars' worth of contracts in Iraq as well as the military's oversight of those contracts, a Democratic critic said yesterday. In a memo to congressional colleagues, Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, said Pentagon auditors found that a Halliburton subsidiary gave unreliable figures in a $2.7 billion proposal to provide logistics for troops in Iraq.

WASHINGTON - A massive contract to support US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan received a withering review yesterday, as a special panel investigating waste and fraud in wartime spending was told of numerous deficiencies in the arrangement that has paid KBR Inc. nearly $32 billion since 2001. Testifying before the bipartisan Wartime Contracting Commission, April Stephenson, head of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, said her agency has referred at least 16 reports since 2004 of suspected fraud or improper conduct stemming from the contract to government investigators.

WASHINGTON - Instead of seeing red, Pentagon audit managers saw business as usual after being told that a major military contractor failed to open all its books for review. At a meeting of Defense Contract Audit Agency staff in California last May, auditor Acacia Rodriguez used a 24-page PowerPoint briefing to describe how she and her co-workers struggled with the Bechtel Group's "chronic failure" to provide the financial records required to prove tax dollars were being spent properly.

WASHINGTON - The Army’s primary support contractor in Iraq is being warned by Pentagon auditors to cut its work force there or face nearly $200 million in penalties for keeping thousands too many on the payroll. The Houston-based KBR Inc., responsible for everything from mail and laundry to housing and meals, has increased employee levels while US troops steadily leave the country after more than six years of war, the audit says. As a result, the US government is paying far more in labor costs in Iraq than it should as military resources are shifted...

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon auditors questioned more than $108 million in costs claimed by Halliburton on its $875 million contract to provide fuel in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, according to records released yesterday. The Defense Contract Audit Agency also faulted Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR for failing to provide the records necessary to evaluate spending on the contract. The data KBR gave the auditors didn't match the company's internal accounting records, the agency said in a report dated Oct. 8. The charges auditors questioned included a payment of $27.5...

WASHINGTON - Instead of seeing red, Pentagon audit managers saw business as usual after being told that a major military contractor failed to open all its books for review. At a meeting of Defense Contract Audit Agency staff in California last May, auditor Acacia Rodriguez used a 24-page PowerPoint briefing to describe how she and her co-workers struggled with the Bechtel Group's "chronic failure" to provide the financial records required to prove tax dollars were being spent properly.

WASHINGTON -- About $10 billion has been squandered by the US government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned yesterday that significantly more taxpayer money is at risk. The three top auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State Department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses, and payments for shoddy work or work never done.

WASHINGTON -- Halliburton Co. acknowledged to Pentagon auditors that it provided faulty cost estimates last year for $2.7 billion in services to American troops in Iraq and Kuwait, according to documents released by the Defense Department yesterday. Those problems included a failure to tell contract managers that Halliburton had terminated two subcontracts for feeding troops, which affected costs on $1 billion worth of that work, the Defense Contract Audit Agency found. Halliburton also did not tell contract managers it had already awarded subcontracts worth $141.5 million...

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon and congressional investigators found widespread problems with Halliburton's cost estimates for billions of dollars' worth of contracts in Iraq as well as the military's oversight of those contracts, a Democratic critic said yesterday. In a memo to congressional colleagues, Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, said Pentagon auditors found that a Halliburton subsidiary gave unreliable figures in a $2.7 billion proposal to provide logistics for troops in Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- Halliburton's own auditors warned of problems with the company's contract to deliver fuel in Iraq even before Pentagon investigators raised similar concerns, a Democratic presidential candidate said. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut said a Pentagon official told him that Halliburton was refusing to turn over copies of the internal audit, which Defense Department investigators found but did not copy. Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said that the internal audit was confidential and that a Pentagon auditor may have broken the law by reading it. Hall...