Feb 2nd, 2004, 10:23 AM
HALLIBURTON: The Gift that Keeps on Giving!
Halliburton in $16M food probe
Report: Contractor allegedly overcharged U.S. military for food-service work.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Halliburton Co. allegedly overcharged more than $16 million for meals at a U.S. military base in Kuwait during the first seven months of last year, according to a published report Monday, citing Pentagon investigators auditing the company's work.
Because of the charges, which involve food-service work done by Halliburton (HAL: Research, Estimates) unit Kellogg Brown & Root, the Pentagon has extended its audit of KBR food services to include more than 50 other dining facilities in Kuwait and Iraq, according to an e-mail sent Friday to more than 12 U.S. Army contracting officials and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
The company issued a statement Monday, saying it is not an issue of overcharging, it's "about finding a good way to estimate the number of meals so soldiers can get fed. It's difficult to determine how many people will be at the dinner table in the middle of a war zone and the number must be based on estimates."
Thank God we didn't ask these guys to actually bid for their contract! Think how hard it would have been for them to estimate the cost! I mean, estimating is HARD, there's math and stuff involved! It's a good thing we privatized the militaries food service. It would have been a shame if we'd stuck with people who hve some experience in feeding soldiers.
It's difficult to determine how many people will be at the dinner table? It's so difficult that $16M is the margin of error?
Let's see. How about a generous estimate of $30 per soldier per day (food shouldn't cost that much but I'll assume they're paying for preparation too). Seven months=210 days=$630 per soldier for that period.
So, guys, where did those extra TWENTY-THREE THOUSAND SOLDIERS come from? Hmm?
What do you suppose Halliburton would have to do to actually loose their contracts in Iraq? Suppose it was found that they were putting 'collaterally damaged civillians" in the chipped beef on toast?
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