Halliburton to Keep Billions in Questionable Fees?

Lovely. Just lovely.

The Army is setting the stage to let Halliburton Co. keep several billion dollars paid for work in Iraq that Pentagon auditors call questionable or unsupported by adequate documentation.

According to Pentagon documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the Army has admitted that the Houston-based company may never be able to account properly for some of its work. Halliburton’s Kellogg Brown & Root unit is accused of over-billing the government for some operations.

The company has hired a consulting firm to estimate what Halliburton’s services should cost, the report said. Officials may use that estimate as the basis for “an equitable settlement,” under which the Pentagon could drop many of the claims its auditors have made against the company.