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CNN Live At Daybreak
Minding Your Business: Grub Flub
Aired February 04, 2004 - 07:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Maybe you've had the experience after being served a meal a little dispute about the bill. Well, multiply that by millions, and you now have the latest controversy about Halliburton.
With that, plus a market preview, Christine Romans is here in for Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Nice to see. Good morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS: Nice to see you. Good morning.
O'BRIEN: The company is not saying -- admitting any wrongdoing in this, are they?
ROMANS: It really isn't. It says that indeed there were too many meals charged at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait -- $27 million is that disputed bill.
Halliburton says it will pay the government back for that $27 million potential overcharges for soldiers' meals. Of course, Halliburton's subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root, supplies food and gas to U.S. troops all over the world.
In this particular food fight, the meals billed over less than nine months at this one camp last year, 42,042 meals billed to the U.S. government. The number of meals served: 14,000.
On this same contract last week, Halliburton said it would repay the government about $6 million for some kick-back allegations. And also, of course, Soledad, Kellogg, Brown and Root is under investigation for $61 million in overcharges for a fuel contract to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Of course, Halliburton a lightening rod for the Democrats, who say, listen, the Iraq contract process is murky.
O'BRIEN: Clearly. But at the same time, why isn't the government just adding up the number of actual meals, as opposed to over-guessing by tens of thousands of meals?
ROMANS: And others say it's an example of Pentagon contracts that are murky and not very transparent. And that it might just be a case of it's very hard to do business with the U.S. government, and the government doesn't have a very good idea of exactly how much it costs to have thousands of American soldiers in the Middle East fighting this war and others.
O'BRIEN: Five seconds to give me the market preview.
ROMANS: It's expected to open lower because Cisco profit fell.
O'BRIEN: Wow!
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Time.
O'BRIEN: She's good. She is good.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 4, 2004 - 07:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Maybe you've had the experience after being served a meal a little dispute about the bill. Well, multiply that by millions, and you now have the latest controversy about Halliburton.
With that, plus a market preview, Christine Romans is here in for Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Nice to see. Good morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS: Nice to see you. Good morning.
O'BRIEN: The company is not saying -- admitting any wrongdoing in this, are they?
ROMANS: It really isn't. It says that indeed there were too many meals charged at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait -- $27 million is that disputed bill.
Halliburton says it will pay the government back for that $27 million potential overcharges for soldiers' meals. Of course, Halliburton's subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root, supplies food and gas to U.S. troops all over the world.
In this particular food fight, the meals billed over less than nine months at this one camp last year, 42,042 meals billed to the U.S. government. The number of meals served: 14,000.
On this same contract last week, Halliburton said it would repay the government about $6 million for some kick-back allegations. And also, of course, Soledad, Kellogg, Brown and Root is under investigation for $61 million in overcharges for a fuel contract to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Of course, Halliburton a lightening rod for the Democrats, who say, listen, the Iraq contract process is murky.
O'BRIEN: Clearly. But at the same time, why isn't the government just adding up the number of actual meals, as opposed to over-guessing by tens of thousands of meals?
ROMANS: And others say it's an example of Pentagon contracts that are murky and not very transparent. And that it might just be a case of it's very hard to do business with the U.S. government, and the government doesn't have a very good idea of exactly how much it costs to have thousands of American soldiers in the Middle East fighting this war and others.
O'BRIEN: Five seconds to give me the market preview.
ROMANS: It's expected to open lower because Cisco profit fell.
O'BRIEN: Wow!
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Time.
O'BRIEN: She's good. She is good.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
