The US Army may replace Halliburton as the agent for future gasoline imports into Iraq following accusations of overcharging, two senior Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday.
The Army Corps of Engineers was considering switching the business to the Pentagon's Defense Energy Support Center, said two Democrats in the House of Representatives, Henry Waxman and John Dingell.
"Given the extraordinarily high prices that Halliburton has been charging to import gasoline, this action could save American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars," they wrote in a letter to the Army Corps.
The Army Corps was not immediately available to comment.
Waxman and Dingell said they learned of plans to switch the business away from Halliburton during discussions with the director of the Defense Energy Support Center, Jeffrey Jones.
"According to Mr. Jones, the Corps asked the Defense Energy Support Center to take over the job of bringing gasoline and other fuels into Iraq," the lawmakers wrote.
Waxman is the senior Democrat in the House of Representatives' committee on government reform and Dingell the ranking Democrat in the House committee on energy and commerce.
The two Democrats have accused Halliburton of charging the US government US$162.5 million for 232 million liters of gasoline imported from Kuwait, equivalent to US$0.70 a liter.
They said officials had told them the Defense Energy Support Center was already importing some gasoline into Iraq for military use for less than half that amount.
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