Yahoo! News - New Report Finds Problems with Iraq Contracts
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The handing out of some early no-competition work to rebuild Iraq (news - web sites) was flawed and U.S. government agencies failed in several instances to comply with procurement laws, said a new government report on Monday.

The General Accounting Office said while agencies generally complied with applicable laws, the Bush administration violated requirements when it issued some "task orders" for work in Iraq under contracts the government already had with companies.

The report, to be discussed at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, found instances where contracting officers issued work that was not within the scope of these existing contracts.

For example, Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root was asked to do contingency planning for Iraq's oil infrastructure under a logistics deal it had with the U.S. Army, a task the GAO said likely overstepped competition laws.

So, will they have to give the money back? Or will it be a slap on the wrist? My guess is the latter. Moral of the story: white collar crime pays, always.