(Washington, D.C.) – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today made available on its Internet site documents related to a multi-billion-dollar contract to restore Iraqi oil production awarded to Halliburton.  The contracting process now is the subject of an FBI probe.

The New York Times reported today that the FBI is investigating whether procurement regulations were violated in the awarding of the five-year, $8 billion sole-source contract to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  Sole-source contracts, which are awarded without a competitive bidding process, are rarely used by the federal government.

Judicial Watch sought records concerning KBR costs, deadlines, spending limits, bonus scales, timetables and requirements through Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the Army Corps of Engineers in April and June 2003.  The Corps of Engineers initially denied those requests, then declassified the contract documents in April, following Judicial Watch’s filing of a lawsuit in February 2004 against the Army.

Among the documents obtained in April 2004 by Judicial Watch is one titled “Justification and Approval (J&A) for Other Than Full and Open Competition for the Execution of the Contingency Support Plan” – the Corps of Engineers’ reasoning for awarding a sole-source contract to KBR.  Another document includes a handwritten note from Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, the Corps of Engineers’ chief contracting officer, expressing her concerns about the KBR contract:  “I caution that extending this sole source effort beyond a one year period could convey an invalid perception that there is not any intent for a [illegible] competition.”  Mrs. Greenhouse has called for an investigation into the contracting process, and the FBI has asked to interview her.  The Pentagon recently rescinded KBR’s long-term contract and opened it for competitive bidding.

“The Pentagon’s contracting process has been called into question, and documents Judicial Watch obtained show that at least one top Pentagon official was concerned about awarding a contract to Halliburton,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “We hope the FBI will get to the bottom of this matter, which affects each and every taxpayer.”

Visit www.judicialwatch.org to view the Halliburton contract documents.