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Report: Halliburton Out of Iraq Deal Race
-m Business - Reuters

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=580&e=3&cid=580&u=/nm/20030328/bs_n...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Energy and construction company Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL - news) is out of the competition for a massive U.S. government contract for reconstruction in Iraq (news - web sites), Newsweek said on Friday.




The Newsweek Web site quoted Timothy Beans, an official of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), as saying that Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), was not one of the two finalists shortlisted for the contract.


The company is the second-largest oilfield services firm in the world.


The contract, which AID is expected to award within days, is expected to be worth from $600 million to $900 million. It covers repairing Iraqi health services, ports and airports, and schools and other educational institutions.


Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall declined comment on the Newsweek report. Beans was not available and other AID officials had no immediate comment.


Halliburton was one of five companies invited to bid for the contract under an expedited procurement process which was restricted to companies with security clearances.


The other companies were Bechtel Group Inc., Fluor Corp. (NYSE:FLR - news), Parsons Corp. and Louis Berger Group Inc.


AID administrator Andrew Natsios said this week that only two companies were still in the competition. He said he did not know which they were because of the arrangements for contracts of this nature.


Newsweek said it was not clear if Halliburton removed itself from the running, was asked by the Bush administration to do so or if its bid was not considered competitive.


But it quoted Beans as saying: "If I got a phone call from anybody putting any political pressure on me, I would report it immediately to Natsios, as I've been instructed to do."


A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, also known as KBR, said on Monday it had won a U.S. government contract to assess and extinguish oil well fires in Iraq.


Halliburton has a long history of involvement in military logistical support for the U.S. government.


A U.S. lawmaker wrote to the military on Wednesday asking why it had awarded the contract to KBR.


In a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, sought details of the wartime contract, and inquired why the administration had not allowed other companies to bid on it.


The restricted invitations to bid for the Iraqi contractors has also angered foreign companies, although the money will come from U.S. taxpayers, not from any Iraqi source