Army Contract Official Critical of Halliburton Pact Is Demoted
By Erik Eckholm
New York Times - August 29, 2005
A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract
with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the
Army called poor job performance.
The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, has worked in military procurement for 20
years and for the past several years had been the chief overseer of contracts at
the Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that has managed much of the
reconstruction work in Iraq.
Ms. Greenhouse's lawyer, Michael Kohn, called the action an "obvious reprisal"
for the strong objections she raised in 2003 to a series of corps decisions
involving the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which has garnered
more than $10 billion for work in Iraq.
Dick Cheney led Halliburton, which is based in Texas, before he became vice
president.
"She is being demoted because of her strict adherence to procurement
requirements and the Army's preference to sidestep them when it suits their
needs," Mr. Kohn said Sunday in an interview. He also said the Army had violated
a commitment to delay Ms. Greenhouse's dismissal until the completion of an
inquiry by the Pentagon's inspector general.
Carol Sanders, spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said Sunday that the
personnel action against Ms. Greenhouse had been approved by the Department of
the Army. And in a memorandum dated June 3, 2005, as the demotion was being
arranged, the commander of the corps, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, said the
administrative record "clearly demonstrates that Ms. Greenhouse's removal from
the S.E.S. is based on her performance and not in retaliation for any
disclosures of alleged improprieties that she may have made."
Known as a stickler for the rules on competition, Ms. Greenhouse initially
received stellar performance ratings, Mr. Kohn said. But her reviews became
negative at roughly the time she began objecting to decisions she saw as
improperly favoring Kellogg Brown & Root, he said. Often she hand-wrote her
concerns on the contract documents, a practice that corps leaders called
unprofessional and confusing.
In October 2004, General Strock, citing two consecutive performance reviews that
called Ms. Greenhouse an uncooperative manager, informed her that she would be
demoted.
Ms. Greenhouse fought the demotion through official channels, and publicly
described her clashes with Corps of Engineers leaders over a five-year, $7
billion oil-repair contract awarded to Kellogg Brown & Root. She had argued that
if urgency required a no-bid contract, its duration should be brief.
Ms. Greenhouse had also fought the granting of a waiver to Kellogg Brown & Root
in December 2003, approving the high prices it had paid for fuel imports for
Iraq, and had objected to extending its five-year contract for logistical
support in the Balkans for 11 months and $165 million without competitive
bidding. In late June, ignoring warnings from her superiors, Ms. Greenhouse
appeared before a Congressional panel, calling the Kellogg Brown & Root oil
contract "the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during
the course of my professional career." She also said the defense secretary's
office had improperly interfered in the awarding of the contract.
Her demotion was delayed when the Army's senior legal officials said they would
first seek an independent investigation of her reprisal complaint. "The Army has
referred this matter to the Department of Defense inspector general for their
review and action, as appropriate," said an Oct. 22, 2004, letter to Ms.
Greenhouse's lawyer from Robert M. Fano, the Army's chief of civilian personnel
law. The acting secretary of the Army, Mr. Fano wrote, had also directed the
Corps of Engineers to "suspend any adverse personnel action so that Ms.
Greenhouse remains in her current position until a sufficient record is
available to address the specific matters you raised."
But on July 14, the Army secretary approved Ms. Greenhouse's demotion, effective
Aug. 27. With his request to proceed, General Strock had provided an unsigned
nine-page memorandum, reviewing Ms. Greenhouse's recent performance ratings and
responding to her allegations of impropriety.
Mr. Kohn said Sunday that the inspector general had not finished investigating
the matter and that the demotion violated the Army secretary's commitment to
wait on any action.
Mr. Kohn said that when he telephoned Dan Meyer, director of civilian reprisal
investigations in the inspector general's office, on Aug. 24, Mr. Meyer was "shocked" to learn that the corps had proceeded against Ms. Greenhouse. Mr.
Meyer said that he was immediately opening a "civilian reprisal" investigation
and faxed forms to Mr. Kohn to initiate the process, Mr. Kohn said.
A Pentagon spokesman said Sunday that the inspector general's office could not
be reached for comment.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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