More Fun in Iraq : Army CoE clears Haliburton/KBR of gasoline overcharging, despite Pentagon audits

From Yahoo News/WSJ:

Army Corps Clears Halliburton in Iraq Fuel-Pricing Flap
Tue Jan 6,12:41 AM ET

WASHINGTON -- The head of the Army Corps of Engineers quietly exonerated Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL - News) of any wrongdoing in a Kuwait fuel-delivery contract that Pentagon auditors asserted has overcharged the U.S. government by more than $100 million, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported.

In a previously undisclosed Dec. 19 ruling, the commander of the Corps, Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers, cleared Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary of the need to provide "any cost and pricing data" pertaining to a no-bid contract to deliver millions of gallons of gasoline from Kuwait to Iraq (news - web sites). He acted after lower-level Army Corps officials concluded in a memo to him that Kellogg Brown & Root had provided enough data to show it had purchased the fuel and its delivery to Iraq at a "fair and reasonable price."

The decision, which Halliburton itself requested, came after Halliburton's pricing of gasoline sold to the U.S. government exploded into public controversy last month when Defense Department auditors alleged that Kellogg Brown & Root, known as KBR, was significantly overcharging. While the auditors never accused the company of profiteering, when news of the audit broke, President Bush (news - web sites) said that if Halliburton had overcharged for the fuel, he expected the company to repay the money. (read more...)

Note, this is in the "Business News", as if none of the general public would take any interest in it whatsoever.