halliburton is doing well in iraq
it seems nobody’s really covering this story – just a little blip in the houston chronicle, the atlanta constitution-journal and the international herald tribune. i can’t link the constitution article (registration), and the herald tribune interface is horrid, so we’ll go with the chronicle:
Millions in U.S. property lost in Iraq, report says [houston chronicle, july 27, 2004]Halliburton Co. has lost $18.6 million of government property in Iraq, about a third of the items it was given to manage, including trucks, computers and office furniture, government auditors claim.
The auditors couldn’t account for 6,975 of 20,531 items on the ledgers of Halliburton’s KBR unit, according to a report by Stuart Bowen, auditor for the coalition provisional authority inspector general
of course, the company disagrees, and we all know that “government auditors” are the same guys that didn’t notice so many other business scandals recently, but the heat should be on haliburton enough by now that there’s something legit here.
the tribune article says that trucks given to haliburton were destroyed when they broke down (breaking down meaning anything from a flat tire on up). but i don’t know if that’s relevant. you see, i think “we blew up the truck” still counts as “accounting for the truck.” maybe i don’t understand, but that would be my impression. this is more like “well, we thought the truck was here, but maybe it’s being used to smuggle weapons of mass destruction across the border to syria.”
haliburton spins hard:
[halliburton spokesperson cathy] Gist said in an e-mailed statement. “The facts show that (KBR) has adequately managed the property for this mission by aggressively monitoring its property management functions above and beyond what is required for government approval of a property control system.”
oh. ok. since you put it that way, i feel better about my tax dollars now.