WASHINGTON, Dec 12: The US Defence Department said on Thursday that a subsidiary of the Halliburton energy giant, formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, overcharged for petrol sold to the US military in Iraq.

Other violations of Iraq contracts were also found in the Pentagon’s audit, officials said. Contracts awarded to Halliburton have caused a prolonged controversy.

Pentagon officials said an audit of the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) found prices were inflated by up to 61 million dollars.

“The audit found some overpricing on a few different occasions. It’s not just a one-time finding,” a Pentagon source said.

“It’s not just the oil that has been overpriced.”

Last month, two contracts were given to the Halliburton subsidiary, the Pentagon source said: one of seven billion dollars to restore Iraqi oil, and the other to provide logistical support to US troops in the Middle East and Central Asia, worth 8.6 billion dollars.

Irregularities were found “in both contracts”.

Another official said the prices charged were based on those charged by a Kuwaiti subcontractor. “I don’t think it’s a systematic problem of overcharging,” the official said.

The KBR hit back strongly at what it called “inaccurate media reports”.

It said in a statement that the Defence Contract Audit Agency was “conducting a routine audit and has requested additional information from KBR. There have been no conclusions reached and this is a normal part of the audit process for the DCAA to raise questions and request additional materials.

—AFP