Halliburton Out of Race for Iraq Deal
Fri Mar 28, 7:32 PM ET
By Jonathan Wright
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Energy and construction company Halliburton Co. is out of the running for a massive U.S. government contract for reconstruction in Iraq, the Agency for International Development (AID) said on Friday.
AID official Timothy Beans told Newsweek magazine that Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, was not one of the two finalists short-listed for the contract.
"I can confirm the information that the director of our procurement office (Beans) shared with Newsweek," said AID spokeswoman Ellen Yount. Halliburton is the second-largest oilfield services firm in the world.
The contract, which AID is expected to award within days, is expected to be worth up to $600 million and it covers repairing Iraqi health services, ports and airports, and schools and other educational institutions, an official said.
"There has been no final decision made on who will be awarded the capital construction contract," Yount added.
Halliburton was one of five companies invited to bid for the contract under an expedited procurement process which was restricted to companies with security clearances.
The other companies were Bechtel Group Inc., Fluor Corp., Parsons Corp. and Louis Berger Group Inc.
Newsweek said it was not clear if Halliburton removed itself from the running, was asked by the Bush administration to do so or if its bid was not considered competitive.
But it quoted Beans as saying: "If I got a phone call from anybody putting any political pressure on me, I would report it immediately to Natsios, as I've been instructed to do."
A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, also known as KBR, said on Monday it had won a U.S. government contract to assess and extinguish oil well fires in Iraq.
Halliburton has a long history of involvement in military logistical support for the U.S. government.
A U.S. lawmaker wrote to the military on Wednesday asking why it had awarded the contract to KBR.
In a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, sought details of the wartime contract, and inquired why the administration had not allowed other companies to bid on it.
The restricted invitations to bid for the Iraqi contractors has also angered foreign companies, although the money will come from U.S. taxpayers, not from any Iraqi source.
Fri Mar 28, 7:32 PM ET
By Jonathan Wright
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Energy and construction company Halliburton Co. is out of the running for a massive U.S. government contract for reconstruction in Iraq, the Agency for International Development (AID) said on Friday.
AID official Timothy Beans told Newsweek magazine that Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, was not one of the two finalists short-listed for the contract.
"I can confirm the information that the director of our procurement office (Beans) shared with Newsweek," said AID spokeswoman Ellen Yount. Halliburton is the second-largest oilfield services firm in the world.
The contract, which AID is expected to award within days, is expected to be worth up to $600 million and it covers repairing Iraqi health services, ports and airports, and schools and other educational institutions, an official said.
"There has been no final decision made on who will be awarded the capital construction contract," Yount added.
Halliburton was one of five companies invited to bid for the contract under an expedited procurement process which was restricted to companies with security clearances.
The other companies were Bechtel Group Inc., Fluor Corp., Parsons Corp. and Louis Berger Group Inc.
Newsweek said it was not clear if Halliburton removed itself from the running, was asked by the Bush administration to do so or if its bid was not considered competitive.
But it quoted Beans as saying: "If I got a phone call from anybody putting any political pressure on me, I would report it immediately to Natsios, as I've been instructed to do."
A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, also known as KBR, said on Monday it had won a U.S. government contract to assess and extinguish oil well fires in Iraq.
Halliburton has a long history of involvement in military logistical support for the U.S. government.
A U.S. lawmaker wrote to the military on Wednesday asking why it had awarded the contract to KBR.
In a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, sought details of the wartime contract, and inquired why the administration had not allowed other companies to bid on it.
The restricted invitations to bid for the Iraqi contractors has also angered foreign companies, although the money will come from U.S. taxpayers, not from any Iraqi source.
