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U.S. Army Demoted Critic of No-bid Contract in Iraq

From: International Herald Tribune

U.S. Army demotes critic of no-bid contract in Iraq
By Eric Eckholm The New York Times

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005

NEW YORK A top U.S. Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive Iraq contract with Halliburton was demoted for what the army called a poor job performance.

The official, Bunnatine Greenhouse, is a 20-year veteran of military procurement 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.

The demotion over the weekend removed Greenhouse from the elite Senior Executive Service and reassigned her to a lesser job in the civil works division of the corps.

Her lawyer, Michael Kohn, called the action "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 and Afghanistan.

"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," he said in an interview Sunday.

Carol Sanders, spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said Sunday that the action against 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, Lieutenant General Carl Strock, said the administrative record "clearly demonstrates that Ms. Greenhouse's removal from the SES 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, Greenhouse initially received stellar performance ratings. But her reviews grew critical after she began objecting to decisions she saw as improperly favoring Kellogg, Brown & Root. Often she recorded her concerns in handwriting on the contract documents, a practice that corps leaders called unprofessional and confusing.

In October 2003, Strock, citing consecutive performance reviews that called Greenhouse an uncooperative manager, informed her that she would be demoted.

Greenhouse fought the demotion through official channels and publicly described her clashes with corps leaders over a five-year, $7 billion oil-repair contract that had been awarded - in secret - to Kellogg, Brown & Root. She had maintained that if urgency required a no-bid contract, its duration should be brief.

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 the automatic extension of a large contract to the company for logistical support in the Balkans.

NEW YORK A top U.S. Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive Iraq contract with Halliburton was demoted for what the army called a poor job performance.

The official, Bunnatine Greenhouse, is a 20-year veteran of military procurement 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.

The demotion over the weekend removed Greenhouse from the elite Senior Executive Service and reassigned her to a lesser job in the civil works division of the corps.

Her lawyer, Michael Kohn, called the action "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 and Afghanistan.

"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," he said in an interview Sunday.

Carol Sanders, spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said Sunday that the action against 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, Lieutenant General Carl Strock, said the administrative record "clearly demonstrates that Ms. Greenhouse's removal from the SES 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, Greenhouse initially received stellar performance ratings. But her reviews grew critical after she began objecting to decisions she saw as improperly favoring Kellogg, Brown & Root. Often she recorded her concerns in handwriting on the contract documents, a practice that corps leaders called unprofessional and confusing.

In October 2003, Strock, citing consecutive performance reviews that called Greenhouse an uncooperative manager, informed her that she would be demoted.

Greenhouse fought the demotion through official channels and publicly described her clashes with corps leaders over a five-year, $7 billion oil-repair contract that had been awarded - in secret - to Kellogg, Brown & Root. She had maintained that if urgency required a no-bid contract, its duration should be brief.

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 the automatic extension of a large contract to the company for logistical support in the Balkans.

International Herald Tribune

posted by Annamarie at 12:08 AM