Halliburton has a multi-billion dollar contract to feed and house the
troops in Iraq. But there are problems. A food subcontractor that runs
10
percent of the dining facilities in Iraq claims it hasn't been paid by
Halliburton for months, and is threatening to stop serving hot meals.
The company, Event Source, serves 100,000 meals a day in Iraq under a
contract with a Halliburton subsidiary. Event Source claims Halliburton
owes it $87 million, including payment for President Bush's
Thanksgiving
dinner with the troops.
""When you get stuck out there for $87 million dollars,"" explains
Event
Source Chief Executive Officer Phil Morrell, ""it's a question of
economics.""
In an interview with NBC News, Morrell says he's already laid off
employees
in the United States and soon will have to feed sandwiches to the
troops,
instead of hot meals, because his company is running low on money.
Last month, Halliburton was accused of overcharging the government for
feeding troops and agreed to forego further payments until the issue is
resolved.
Morrell says he believes Halliburton and its other food service
contractors
did overcharge, billing the government not for meals actually served,
but
for meals a facility could have served.
""In a lot of cases,"" says Morrell, ""that was two or three times the
number of troops who were actually coming in. And we just thought that
was
just unethical and decided not to go down that path.""
All this as Halliburton tries to repair its image and its Chairman of
the
board, President and Chief executive officer Dave Lesar insists in an
advertisement, ""Criticism is okay - we can take it."" The company
points
out some problems are inevitable in a war zone.
No one believes troops will actually go hungry.
Monday, Halliburton did not dispute the charges. It says it's auditing
all
its dining facilities and doing all it can to speed the process.
Lisa Myers is Nib's Senior Investigative Correspondent.
03-12-2004, 08:15 AM
Meals for our Troops
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