House Critics Want Corps to Rescind Halliburton Fuel-Price Data Waiver 1/7/2004
Two House Democrats have asked the Corps of Engineers to cancel the waiver it has given to Halliburton Co.'s KBR unit to certify cost and price information on fuel imported to Iraq from Kuwait. Halliburton said in a Jan. 6 statement that the Corps had issued the waiver on Dec. 19 of the certification requirement of data from KBR's subcontractor. Providing fuel for Iraqi civilian use is one element of a contract that Halliburton's KBR unit has with the Corps to rebuild Iraqi oil infrastructure.
In early November, the Corps asked Halliburton to increase deliveries of fuel and add kerosene, says Ross Adkins, Corps spokesman in the Dallas office. "Turkey was giving us as much as they could, Saudi Arabia was too far away, so we asked them to go back to the Kuwaitis and get another source," he says. Under federal acquisition regulations for a sole-source contracts, Halliburton is required to provide cost and price data. But the Kuwaitis refused to do so, citing their own national security, according to a memo from Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers, Corps commander. The Corps determined that keeping fuel flowing into Iraq superceded the need for cost and price data. A waiver was granted.