Halliburton 'Over Billing' Controversy

According to reports, the company did not kept record of how many soldiers were having their meals at a time. Analysts felt that this was done in order to make the estimate of the food-bill impossible to calculate. Halliburton, however, denied these charges and said that it was possible that there was some overestimation. The company said that in war time, exact estimation of number of soldiers that would come for lunch/dinner was not possible as soldiers went on leave or troops were shifted to other locations frequently without the knowledge of the company. The company also said that it did not keep records of the number of meals because the commanders did not want the soldiers to 'sign in' for meals due to security reasons...

Stephanie Cutter, the spokesperson of the presidential contender of democrats - John Kerry (Kerry) said, "George Bush himself opposed pay increases for our troops in combat and gave no-bid contracts in Iraq to Halliburton, who grossly over billed the US government." Kerry declared, "Halliburton is guilty of shameful war-profiteering, and they need to be held accountable." Denying all charges, Halliburton said that it had become the target of 'political profiteering.' Though the company admitted that there might have been some mistakes in billing but also said that in the war zone faulty estimation was quite possible. Laser said, "When we are operating in a war zone under intense time pressures we will of course make some mistakes"...