US vice president Mr Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton, which has clocked up nearly $6 billion in US military business so far in Iraq, today sought to deflect fallout from a possible Pentagon inquiry into suspected price gouging.
Halliburton spokeswoman Ms Wendy Hall defended the company's dangerous work in Iraq and welcomed a "thorough review of any and all of our government contracts" and said its unit Kellogg Brown and Root had closely followed procurement rules.
"As the fuel overcharging allegations have surfaced in recent months, the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the KBR contract, has said ongoing audits have shown no signs of overcharging or any other impropriety," she told reporters in an e-mail response to questions.
Military auditors said yesterday they had asked the Pentagon's inspector general to look into an "irregularity" over fuel brought into Iraq by Halliburton's unit KBR, suggesting the auditors suspected wrongdoing.
"They have noted the suspected irregularity to the inspector general and the IG will now take and do with it what they see fit," a Department of Defence official told reporters today.
The official did not know whether a formal investigation would be launched and could not say whether the referral was linked to a draft audit reported earlier that found KBR may have been overcharged by $61 million to bring fuel into Iraq via Kuwaiti subcontractor Altanmia Commercial Marketing Co.
The fuel pricing issue has dogged Halliburton for months after Democrats raised questions over why the company was charging nearly double the going rate to bring in fuel via Kuwait rather than the cheaper route, Turkey.