Stop me if you’ve heard this one… Dick Cheney’s Halliburton gets a lucrative contract, breaks the rules, but gets paid anyway. Yep, it’s happened again.
In a departure from normal policy, the Army said yesterday it will not withhold future payments to Halliburton Co., despite audit reports last summer that said the giant logistical contractor had not properly accounted for a wide variety of work in Iraq and Kuwait.
The decision comes months after Army auditors recommended withholding 15 percent of payments, about $60 million a month, from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc., the largest government contractor in Iraq.
Acquisition regulations require the withholding in cases where work has not been “definitized” — the process in which companies negotiate the final terms, conditions and costs of work orders with the government.
Wow, who could have guessed it? Halliburton was supposed to be punished, but the Pentagon is making an exception for Dick Cheney’s old company. This comes as a huge surprise to … absolutely no one.
The decision will mean $60 million a month for Halliburton — despite the advice of the Army’s own internal auditors, who urged officials to withhold the funds until the billing questions could be resolved.
Just another day in Bush’s America, where casual corruption hardly raises an eyebrow anymore.