Battle over Halliburton's army dinners

HARD on the heels of censure for over-charging the US army for petrol supplies in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney's old firm Halliburton is in hot water again for allegedly inflating the cost of feeding the troops there.

Kellogg Brown & Root, the company's Middle East subsidiary, said the matter had come to light as part of a routine Pentagon audit.

According to some reports, KBR may have overcharged by more than $16m (£8.8m) for preprepared meals served to the troops in one large military base during the first seven months of last year. The job was contracted out to a Saudi Arabian company.

The Pentagon is now looking at charges relating to 50 other facilities. KBR prefers, however, to consider it a logistics issue.

'This is not about overcharging. This is about finding a good way to estimate the number of meals so soldiers can get fed,' said KBR president and chief executive Randy Harl. 'This is not a neighbourhood restaurant where you can quickly total up all the dinner tabs,' the company said.

But, according to the Wall Street Journal, the company's tallying skills are way off.

Last July, the Saudi contractor billed for more than 42,000 meals a day but served about only 14,000. The excess came to about $3.5m for that month, the paper said.