Halliburton wins £50m MoD contract

THE Ministry of Defence has awarded a seven-year contract worth up to £50m to a subsidiary of Halliburton, the US contractor engulfed in allegations of overcharging and kickbacks on similar contracts with the American military in Iraq.

The British contract is to provide logistics and infrastructure support to the Permanent Joint Forces Headquarters operations and exercises worldwide.

The Halliburton arm, Kellogg Brown & Root, is already one of the top five defence contractors in Britain.

Although the basic contract is for £12m, the company said its total final value could be as much as £50m.

News of the deal came on the day that Halliburton, which used to be run by US Vice President Dick Cheney, also promised to pay back $27.4m (£14.9m) to the US military for potential overcharging on meals served to troops in Iraq.

Kellogg Brown & Root was found to have overcharged by more than $16m for meals at a military base in Kuwait.

The company also refunded $6.3m last month after admitting that employees had taken kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor.

Halliburton, which has so far been awarded contracts worth more than $8bn in Iraq, mostly without having to compete for the business, has become the centre of criticism in the US for the way the government has mishandled the peace in Iraq.