It’s no secret that the Homeland Security Department’s finances are a mess. Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone missing, and the agency has struggled to get its many disparate operations onto a single accounting system. As a result, it has repeatedly failed to explain to Congress how it spends its money.
So what bastion of transparency does the White House tap to take over the vacant post of DHS Chief Financial Officer? The Pentagon guy who helped Halliburton hide from scrutiny over $170 million in disputed charges.
David Norquist, the nominee for DHS CFO (and kid brother to GOP power broker Grover Norquist), had his hearing before the Senate on Monday — it didn’t go smoothly. CQ’s Angela Kim is one of the few reporters in Washington who noticed.
The backstory on Norquist’s assist to Halliburton: Just before the 2003 invasion, the Pentagon awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root a no-bid contract to help restore Iraqi oilfields. KBR returned a bill for $2.4 billion, half of which was paid for by Iraqi oil funds.
A subsequent investigation found at least $170 million in disputed charges. Because half of the bill was paid for by Iraqi reconstruction funds, the United Nations wanted to examine the contract documents to see how much, if any, of the Iraqi payments were improper.
The Pentagon (in the form of David Norquist, then deputy undersecretary of defense and comptroller) allowed Halliburton to make 463 redactions to the documents before turning them over to the UN. It was required by law, the Pentagon said. Unfortunately, its law-abiding nature didn’t extend to its dealings with Congress on the matter: despite requests, demands, pleas from Republicans and Democrats on the Hill, the Pentagon steadfastly refused to let Congress review an unredacted copy as required by law.
