WASHINGTON, 30 August 2005 — The top civilian contracting official for the US Army Corps of Engineers who last October charged the US Army with granting the Halliburton Company multi-billion dollar contracts for work in Iraq and the Balkans without following rules designed to ensure competition and fair prices to the government — was demoted and removed from her job on Saturday for what the army called “poor job performance.”
Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, 62, is a veteran of military procurement who served in the Corps of Engineers as the principal assistant responsible for contracting. She also was responsible for reviewing adherence to Pentagon rules intended to shield awards from outside influence and promote competition.
Contracts to Halliburton, a Texas-based conglomerate headed by Dick Cheney before he became vice president, stirred a lot of controversy and charges of nepotism as some contracts were granted on an emergency basis, without competitive bidding. The company’s operations in Iraq, involving work for more than $10 billion, have also been followed by charges of overbilling and waste and were an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign.
In an Oct. 21 letter to the acting US Army secretary, Greenhouse said that after her repeated questions about the Halliburton contracts, she was excluded from major decisions to award money and that her job status was threatened. In response, US Army officials referred her accusations to the Pentagon’s investigations bureau for review and promised to protect her position in the meantime.
The US Army said last October it would refer her complaints to the Defense Department’s inspector general.
Some of the contracts Greenhouse says she questioned, including a noncompetitive agreement with the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root in early 2003 for Iraqi oil repairs that was initially worth up to $7 billion over five years, attracted much debate in Congress and the news media.
As a result, the contract was later shortened to one year and supplanted by a competitive process, just as Greenhouse originally recommended.
Rather than supporting her whistle blowing to save American taxpayer dollars, she was stonewalled on all sides. Maj. Gen. Robert Griffin, the Corps’ deputy commander, told her last fall that he was going to demote her, citing negative performance reviews, and gave her the option to retire. Instead, she hired a lawyer and went public.
No one who knows her was surprised when she charged in a much-publicized letter of Oct. 21, 2004, that the Corps had shown a pattern of favoritism toward Halliburton that imperiled “the integrity of the federal contracting program.”
Greenhouse also testified before a Congressional panel on contracting in Iraq: “I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant and improper abuse I have witnessed” in 20 years working on government contracts.
“I observed, firsthand, that essentially every aspect of the (Restore Iraqi Oil) contract remained under the control the Office of the Secretary of Defense. This troubled me and was wrong,” she said.
The Pentagon insists that as the invasion of Iraq began, Halliburton was the only company able to provide services with the required speed and secrecy. But Pentagon auditors later questioned the company’s billing practices and found examples of careless spending or unjustified charges.
Halliburton has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, insisting it performed well in a war zone and saying much of the criticism is politically motivated.
Greenhouse has overcome many hurdles throughout her career. An African-American woman and a civilian, she tried to shake up what one former Army Corps commander called a “good ole boy” network of longtime officers and favored companies.
Greenhouse traces her principled resistance to her upbringing. She grew up in a segregated cotton town in Louisiana. Although her parents barely finished grade school, she said they taught her religious devotion — she still sings in a church choir every Sunday — and a sense of honesty and duty.
