Houston, We Have a Problem
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An Alternative Annual Report on Halliburton
Contact: Pratap Chatterjee, (510) 271-8080
Houston, May 18, 2004: CorpWatch today released an alternative annual report on Halliburton corporation, the day before its shareholders meet for its annual meeting, that charges that the company is the "most unpatriotic corporation in America".
"Houston, We Have A Problem" is an in-depth, hard-hitting report that provides a detailed look at Halliburton's military and energy operations around the world as well as its political connections. It includes a series of recommendations for the company and its shareholders as well as for the United States policymakers.
Halliburton is one of the 10 largest contractors to the U.S. military, with several lucrative deals in Iraq. It earned $3.9 billion from the armed forces in 2003, a whopping 680 percent more than in 2002, when the company brought in just $483 million from the military.
"Houston: We Have a Problem," also provides numerous case studies of Halliburton's business dealings with some of the most brutal and corrupt regimes in the world, including Burma, Iran, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nigeria, and with Iraqi dictator and former president, Saddam Hussein.
Principal author Pratap Chatterjee, managing editor of Corpwatch, says the report provides answers to the following important questions: "Has the military taken what was clearly intended to be a cost-saving emergency measure and turned it into a boondoggle that will end up costing taxpayers more than we would have paid under the original system?" and "Has this system of outsourcing military work changed the dynamic of the war?"
"With $9 billion and counting, Halliburton has made a killing. Its connection to former CEO Dick Cheney and other high-level contacts in the Bush administration would have made Republicans like General Eisenhower blush with embarrassment," said HalliburtonWatch coordinator Jim Donahue. "The combination of Halliburton's abuse of offshore tax havens, flouting of accounting rules, and dealings with so-called 'axis-of-evil' countries suggests that, for Halliburton, pumping profits is far more important than patriotism."
The report comes on the heels of a recommendation from the Defence Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) that the Pentagon suspend a payment to Halliburton of nearly $160 million for allegedly overcharging for meals in Iraq in 2003. The Pentagon is also conducting a criminal investigation into military audits that show Halliburton overcharged the U.S. Army by $61 million dollars for gasoline trucked into Iraq.
Co-author Andrea Buffa of Global Exchange, who is organizing a protest outside the shareholder meeting, said: "We're going to tell the shareholders and the CEO of Halliburton to bring their employees home from Iraq and stop ripping off U.S. taxpayers and Iraqis."
Note: This report was co-published by Global Exchange in collaboration with the Center for Corporate Policy, Common Cause, the Institute for Policy Studies, the Institute for Southern Studies, and Taxpayers for Common Sense.
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