Army Gives Halliburton $9.4 Million in Bonuses

Halliburton Co. received $9.4 million in bonuses for its work in Kuwait and Afghanistan, the Army said Thursday.

None of the bonuses were for work in Iraq, said Sylvia Youngman, an Army contracts specialist. Reviews of those orders will start next week, she said.

Halliburton’s KBR unit, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, received its biggest bonuses, $4 million of a potential $5 million, for two projects in Bagram and Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Army Field Support Command in Rock Island, Ill., said award fee boards rated KBR’s performance as “excellent” to “very good” for more than a dozen “task orders” in Kuwait and Afghanistan.

The Army said this month that it wouldn’t withhold 15% of future payments to Halliburton for its work in Iraq after a Pentagon inspector general, an Army auditor and the Defense Contract Audit Agency had recommended docking a portion of the company’s payments.

Some government departments have launched investigations of Halliburton’s work in Iraq, including an inquiry on whether it overcharged to supply fuel to Iraqi civilians. The company has said its prices were fair.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) alleged in August that Halliburton, which was headed for five years by Vice President Dick Cheney, was getting special treatment from the Pentagon.

KBR supplies, among other things, housing and daily meals for the 155,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Kuwait and 18,000 in Afghanistan. Halliburton also is helping to restore Iraq’s oil infrastructure.

The awards are the first granted to Halliburton under a contract it won in 2001 to provide emergency combat logistics support worldwide for the Army. It has been paid $7.2 billion of the $10.5 billion obligated.