Source:
Washington PostReport by Pentagon Inspector General Cites Substandard Work, OverpaymentsEfforts by defense contractor KBR to repair hurricane-damaged Navy facilities were deemed shoddy and substandard, and one technical adviser alleged that the federal government "certainly paid twice" for many KBR projects because of "design and workmanship deficiencies," the Pentagon's inspector general reported in an audit released yesterday.
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command gave KBR, then known as Kellogg, Brown and Root, three repair contracts worth $229 million over five years in July 2004, according to the report. At the time, KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton, the Texas energy company whose former chief executive is Vice President Cheney.
After Hurricane Ivan struck the Gulf Coast that September, and Hurricane Katrina a year later, KBR was given a number of tasks. They included removing water-damaged carpet and drywall; applying temporary roofing; removing debris; and building trailer parks for displaced families at naval air stations in Pensacola, Fla., and Gulfport, Miss., the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi and other facilities in the region.
The inspector general reported that its audit of KBR's work found:
The Navy entered into an illegal "cost-plus-percentage-of-cost" contract with the company. Higher costs meant more profit for KBR, which rewarded the company for "inefficiency and non-economical performance," the report said.
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