Washington has agreed to commission a special audit of
sole-source Pentagon contracts granted to Halliburton Co. (HAL.N:
Quote,Profile, Research) and paid for with Iraqi oil money, an
international watchdog agency said on Thursday. The U.S. government
agreed to order the audit after complaints from the International
Advisory and Monitoring Board about contracts the Pentagon awarded to
Halliburton during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq that were paid for
with Iraqi funds and given out without competitive bidding. The Texas
oil services firm was once headed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
The monitoring board, created by the U.N. Security Council to watch
over U.S. stewardship of Iraq's natural resources during the
occupation, also released an audit of Iraq's oil accounts during the
final six months of the occupation. KPMG, which conducted the audit,
expressed reservations about the occupation authorities' tracking of
cash receipts and oil export sales. [more ]
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