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"The proposal of any new law or
regulation of commerce which comes from [businessmen] ought always
to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be
adopted, till after having been long and carefully examined, not
only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious
attention."
Adam Smith, the 18th
century economist who provided the theoretical framework for market
capitalism. [The Wealth of Nations, Chapter
11]
America's business community is
at the heart of our economy, and it is crucial that policy-makers
consider the impact their actions will have on industries. But
that doesn't mean that industry lobbyists should be allowed
to make the laws
themselves.
Over 100 of President Bush's
high-level
appointees to regulatory
agencies previously worked as corporate lobbyists in the very
industries they oversee. [Denver Post] And the shocking
"If you were king" email from a energy department official to a
corporate lobbyist is an example of how Bush's regulatory agencies
have made policy changes based directly on lobbyists' wishes.
["If you
were king"
email]
The graph below shows the
results from a recent nationwide Harris Poll, which asked:
"Do you think big
business has too much or too little power and influence on
Washington?"
|
Too
much |
 83% |
| Too
little |
 9% |
| About right |
 5% |
|
|
The Harris Poll. Feb. 9-16, 2004. N=1,020
adults nationwide. MoE ±
3. |
Eighty-three percent of Americans are concerned about the
unprecedented level of corporate influence on the federal
governemnt; a mere 14% were satisfied with the current
situation (the remainder either did not know or refused to
answer).
OPEN AND HONEST
GOVERNMENT ARCHIVE
Miscellaneous
Articles | Cheney &
Halliburton | Advisory Board Scandals | The Bush
Administration's
Secrecy
Miscellaneous
Articles
Archived
6/2/05:
House reverses DeLay-oriented ethics
rules by 406-20 vote [Reuters]
BitTorrent file of UN Oil-for-Food documents [outragedmoderates.org]
Sandy Berger
pleads guilty to taking classified material [CNN]
Sunshine Week brings new open government
legislation [outragedmoderates.org]
KBR charged DoD $27 million to ship $82,000 of
cooking oil [Houston Chronicle]
Cheney &
Halliburton
Archived 7/13/04 (originally
posted 7/1/04):
DCAA audit results in suspension of KBR's
billing privileges
(Full document PDF: House Committee on Government Reform Minority
Office; also available through
our
Download For
Democracy P2P campaign)
This internal Pentagon report was issued by the Defense
Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) on May 13, 2004. The audit found
that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) failed to
prepare billings "in accordance with applicable laws and
regulations and contract terms." A key problem identified by
the audit was that KBR "does not monitor the ongoing physical
progress of subcontracts or the related costs and billings."
This failure is exemplified by the "37,200 cases of soda"
testimony of a former KBR employee, which was posted
yesterday.
The
Executive summary of the 36-page report is shown
below:
(Full
document PDF: House Committee on
Government Reform Minority Office; also
available through
our Download For
Democracy P2P campaign)
The audit
found that there were 10 "significant deficiencies in the design or
operation" of KBR's internal control structure:
1. Lack of
Written Billing Policies and Procedures
2. Failure to Adjust
Billings Promptly for Changes in Indirect Rates
3. Incorrectly
Prepared Adjustment Vouchers
4. Lack of Appropriate Review and
Approvals of Vouchers
5. Failure to Notify ACO of Contract
Overpayments
6. Lack of Reconciliation of Recorded to Billed
Costs
7. Lack of Adequate Contract Briefings
8. Billing of
Unallowable Costs
9. Inadequate Controls over Subcontract
Billings
10. Management Oversight - Internal Audit
As a result of the DCAA
audit, KBR's direct billing privileges were suspended,
and KBR must send all subsequent billing to the DCAA for
approval before it can receive payment. The excerpt
below, from the "Results of Audit" section, also notes
that "the cost impact to the government is indeterminable; however,
we consider the potential impact to be significant based on the size
of KBR's operations."
(Full document PDF: House Committee on Government
Reform Minority Office; also available through
our Download For Democracy
P2P campaign)
outragedmoderates.org supports a formal
Congressional investigation of Halliburton subsidiary KBR's
contracts in Iraq and Kuwait. Click here to write your Senator or House
Representative an email telling them that you feel the
same way.
Archived 7/13/04 (originally
posted 6/30/04):
Former Halliburton employees report shockingly
wasteful practices
The following
are excerpts from the testimony of David Wilson, former convoy
commander for Halliburton subsidiary KBR in Kuwait and Iraq
(November 2003 - March 2004):
(Full document PDF: House Committee on Government
Reform Minority Office; also
available
through
our Download For Democracy
P2P campaign)
Oil changes were "out of the question" for convoys running
from Kuwait to Iraq? Wilson says that "it
was like their whole preparation was to buy the trucks, hire the
drivers, and let the rest take care of itself."
Later in his testimony,
Wilson recalls an occasion when an
$85,000 truck had to be abandoned due to a flat
tire: "for some reason that was never explained to us, KBR
removed all the spare tires in Kuwait. So when one of our
trucks got a flat tire on the highway, we had to leave it there for
the Iraqis to loot, which is just
crazy."
(Full document PDF: House Committee on Government Reform Minority
Office; also
available
through
our Download For Democracy P2P campaign)
Wilson says that he saw abandoned trucks "on a daily
basis." In addition to the abandonment of trucks, Wilson
describes large convoys of empty trucks, which not only wasted gas
and "caused extra wear and tear," but put employees' lives in
unnecessary danger. He says he still
doesn't understand "why KBR would have placed our lives in
danger that way for no reason."
(Full document PDF: House Committee on Government
Reform Minority Office; also
available
through our Download For Democracy P2P campaign)
The following are excerpts from the
testimony of Marie deYoung, former KBR employee in Kuwait
(December 2003 - April 2004):
(Full document PDF: House Committee on Government Reform Minority
Office; also available through
our Download For Democracy
P2P campaign)
One
hundred dollars to get a fifteen-pound bag of laundry
washed? According to deYoung, Halliburton was paying only | 
