(Sound of knocking on overhead trap door)
VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Come in.
(Aide enters spider hole)
AIDE: Good morning, sir. I have some bad news.
CHENEY: Rumsfeld is going on 'Face The Nation' again? Oh no! NOOOO!
AIDE: No sir. It's worse than that: thanks to an investigation into overcharges in Iraq, the Pentagon is withholding 15 per cent of payments due to your, um, friends at Halliburton.
CHENEY: (laughing) Oh, that's no problem.
AIDE: Sir, fifteen percent of the current bill comes to some 300 million dollars.
CHENEY: Yeah, well, we overcharged them 30% just for such a contingency. Planning, son, we're real good at planning.
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is withholding about $300 million in payments to Halliburton Co. because of possible overcharging for meals served to troops in Iraq and Kuwait.
Defense officials said Wednesday that starting next month, the government will begin withholding 15 percent of the money being paid to Halliburton under a multibillion-dollar contract to provide services such as food, housing, laundry and mail to American forces in Iraq.
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the company disagreed with the decision and hoped to persuade the Pentagon to drop its plans. But if the Defense Department does withhold the money, Halliburton in turn will withhold 15 percent of its payments to its subcontractors, she said.
The withholding won't affect Halliburton's bottom line, Hall said. Company executives told Wall Street analysts last week the company was taking in about $1 billion a month from its operations in Iraq. The company has set aside $141 million to settle the overcharging allegations and already has repaid about $36 million.
Halliburton and its military services subsidiary, KBR, face a criminal investigation into alleged misdeeds in government work in Iraq and Kuwait. In this case, Pentagon auditors accuse KBR of overestimating the number of troops to be served meals, thus reaping millions in overcharges.
Halliburton's other problems include:
* Allegations of a kickback scheme by two former workers in Kuwait that prompted Halliburton to reimburse the Pentagon $6.3 million.
* Faulty cost estimates on the $2.7 billion contract to serve troops in Iraq, including failing to tell the Pentagon that KBR fired two subcontractors. KBR admitted those mistakes in a letter to the Defense Contract Audit Agency.
* A separate DCAA audit that accused KBR of overcharging by $61 million for gasoline delivered to serve the civilian market in Iraq last year. Halliburton has said the charges were proper.
Article comments
1 - bhw
Company executives told Wall Street analysts last week the company was taking in about $1 billion a month from its operations in Iraq.
But if the Defense Department does withhold the money, Halliburton in turn will withhold 15 percent of its payments to its subcontractors, she said.
Un-be-LIEV-able. More "trickle down" theory for you.
2 - Shark
Yep, ONE BILLION DOLLARS every 30 days.
That's almost what A-Rod makes!