When Bush signed the appropriations bill authorizing unlimited pork for companies participating in the post-war construction boom in Iraq, it was missing a provision, included in the Senate version and removed in conference, that would have held companies accountable for excess profits on Iraq-related projects.

Meanwhile, following some agitated inquiries from Democratics in Congress, the Army Corps of Engineers is thinking about—not committed to, but thinking about—terminating its rolling monthly contract with Halliburton for gasoline supplies.

But why, you ask?

Under the contract with Halliburton, the Houston-based firm formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, the Army Corps buys gasoline for $2.65 per gallon, which is then distributed by the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Halliburton purchases the fuel in neighboring Kuwait. The price includes the cost of transporting the gasoline into Iraq.

However, the Defense Energy Support Center, which also imports gasoline from Kuwait for use by the military services, charges only $1.08 to $1.19 per gallon, lower than the average price in the United States.

Lynette Ebberts, a spokeswoman for the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), said the price also reflects the cost of transportation to a central distribution station in Iraq located 150 miles from where the fuel is purchased.

For those who may share the administration’s aversion to math, that’s roughly a 150% differential. Odds are the contract will be cancelled—a Corps spokesman said that he had no idea why Halliburton’s price was so high—but not before Halliburton has skimmed off a nice little contribution toward the executive bonus program this year. The original contract was for thirty days but has been renewed every month from May through November, and Halliburton had been paid $163 million through mid-October. The Corps spokesman said he didn’t know how long it would take to determine whether the DESC could meet the Corp’s needs at the lower cost.

$2.65 is about 50% higher than the average gallon here in Hawaii, which is, although not located in a war zone, considerably further from Kuwait than is Iraq.

Halliburton “only recovers a few cents on the dollar,” according to a company spokesperson. The article doesn’t say how much on the dollar Halliburton subsidiary Kellog, Brown & Root recovered when, in 1997, it was selling plywood to the Army in Bosnia for more than six times the going rate.

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