Talk:No-bid contract/Archives/2017

Need precision

As with most discussions of sole source contracting this article is vague and imprecise. One can criticize the use of sole source contracts but it should be done on a case basis. And the critics should be required to pony up actual facts about improprieties, not just shotgun allegations around. At times the government has need to contract quickly - such as in war. A typical competition for federal work takes seven months or so from the release of a request for proposal until contract award. Sometimes the government needs things done right now.

And the whole Halliburton thing has a political undertone. The contractor that actually got the Iraq sole source contracts was KBR, which for a time was a wholelyy owned subsidiary of Halliburton. Halliburton did not own KBR while Dick Cheney was there. And Halliburton has since sold off KBR, reportedly because the unit's performance was considered lacking, despite Vice President Cheney's illegal influence. I mean that sarcastically, for if Cheney was using his position to steer work to KBR, it didn't do much good.

Sole source contracts are not inherently bad, but they require diligent oversight from within and without. They should always be scrutinized closely. They are indeed subject to abuse.

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—Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.253.65.38 (talk) 12:08, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

This article about Halliburton no-bid looks biased.

I have repeatedly read that Halliburton was given the temporary no-bid because they had a previous competitive bid in place from 2001 under LOGCAP. Here is another perspective:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichLowry/2003/09/18/the_halliburton_smear

Also note that Clinton's administration gave Halliburton a no-bid contract for the Balkans, but for some reason that fact was left out of this article on wikipedia...

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Also, most if not all of the Hurrican Katrina contracts were not No-bid Contracts. They were Federally Pre-qualified contracts. FEMA holds pre arranged contracts with large contractors for Disaster relief everywhere in the United States.

Shaw pumped the water out of New Orleans in 17 days. Estimates were 80 Days. You don't do a fast 3 week bid cycle starting the day the hurricane hits.

The LOGCAP III contract was not "no-bid". It was competitively bid by Fluor and Parsons, as well as KBR. It doesn't take a lot of research to find it, either. Articles claiming (or implying) that Halliburton got a two-billion-dollar no-bid contract in Iraq simply handed to them because of cronyism within the Republican Party are based on baised fabrications and assumptions.

In fact, LOGCAP III, as the name implies, is the third contract of its kind in recent decades. The first LOGCAP (Logistics and Civil Augmentation Program) contract was awarded to Brown & Root Services, which later became part of KBR, for support of US troops during the Balkans operations in the 1990's, and was awarded by the Clinton administration. LOGCAP II was awarded elsewhere, I believe to Parsons.

It's the individual task orders that are not bid out, not the contract itself. People who don't know the difference often confise them - This is how you can always tell the difference between someone who knows what he or she is talking about, and someone who just saw a story on CNN and has an axe to grind with Halliburton or Dick Cheney.

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In have searched for a link between the Clinton administration and no bid contracting, and no, I have found none. So I have decided to remove the Kosovo and Bosnian war (see also)removed. When a person that makes assumptions without proof, like the ass that wrote the past few paragraphs, they do not do justice to public forum. This person is a liar or a prick, who knows. If someone would like to find a link and add it, so be it. This is coming from someone who reads literature and doesn't watch Fox News. Who are trying to get footage of terrorists or any brown people happy that the democrats won the midterm elections.

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What does '48 CFR Ch. 1, Part 6.' mean? I assume it refers to a set of laws ( probably U.S. ) but it's not obvious to a non expert in this field. 217.7.209.108 09:01, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Wow..talk about a partisan hack! Halliburton or the KBR subsidiary was the beneficiary of the defense contracts in the Balkans and worldwide. This was done under Clinton as well, so perhaps it is YOU that is lying or you just prefer not to know the truth? No-bid contracts are a common occurence amongst government contracts. Welcome to the real world. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.161.187.214 (talk) 07:23, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Trying to paint a connection between the Clinton Administration and Halliburton's contract for the Balkans, and comparing it to the Bush Administration's contracts given to them for Iraq and Katrina, is totally absurd. Dick Cheney was CEO of the company during this time, and as former Secretary of State, he had a ton of political influence at the State Department - regardless of the fact that Warren Christopher was secretary during the time the contracts were awarded. Cheney had already established a strong relationship between KBR and the SD, and at the time Halliburton was not suspect of any kind of wrongdoing. It should also be noted that I cannot find ANYTHING suggesting that the awarded contract Halliburton received for the Balkans was a no-bid contract. And in fact, when the contract was up for renewal in 1999, there was bidding between them and Dyncorp. Lifterus 21:05, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

In 1997, when LOGCAP was again put up for bid, Halliburton/Brown & Root lost the competition to another contractor, Dyncorp. But the Clinton Defense Department, rather than switch from Halliburton to Dyncorp, elected to award a separate, sole-source contract to Halliburton/Brown & Root to continue its work in the Balkans. According to a later GAO study, the Army made the choice because 1) Brown & Root had already acquired extensive knowledge of how to work in the area; 2) the company "had demonstrated the ability to support the operation"; and 3) changing contractors would have been costly. The Army's sole-source Bosnia contract with Brown & Root lasted until 1999. At that time, the Clinton Defense Department conducted full-scale competitive bidding for a new contract. The winner was . . . Halliburton/Brown & Root. The company continued its work in Bosnia uninterrupted. https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/bill-clinton-and-halliburton.25750/