Congressman Leonard Boswell says he is “outraged” by news reports indicating two Halliburton employees took six-million dollars in kick-backs on a no-bid government contract for rebuilding Iraq. Boswell says “there’s a rat in the woodpile somewhere and we ought to get him out,” and Boswell says the only way to do that is to establish Congressional oversight of such “no-bid,” secret contracts. Boswell says he’s concerned taxpayers’ money is being used for things it should not be used for, especially at a time when the federal budget deficit is in the half a trillion dollar range. Boswell says he’s getting “kind of fed up with this kind of stuff” and he says “enough is enough.” Boswell says a congressional panel should receive government contracts that are not open to the public bidding process. Boswell says Halliburton, which used to be headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, “has been the worst offender of corporate responsibility time and time again” and “has show complete disregard in their dealing with the federal government and taxpayer dollars.”
