By Ion Zwitter, Avant News Editor
Washington, D.C., December 9, 2005
A Halliburton executive mistakenly left a $1.
7 billion no-bid military procurement contract as a tip in a Washington, D.C. restaurant yesterday, a spokesman for the restaurant, B.
Smith's at 50 Massachusetts Ave. NE, said yesterday. The contract was apparently left by the Halliburton executive, James Weedroot, who said he "felt a little stupid" about the incident, but was "glad it's deductible", as a tip for a $1,400 business lunch.
The startled waitress, Ms. Janet Jackson (no relation), said she was "a little surprised, and actually a little peeved. How the heck am I supposed to cash a $1.
7 billion military contract?"
Halliburton, originally an oil services company but now a conglomerate that has grown increasingly flexible in handling or subcontracting any procurement treats the Bush administration happens to throw at it, routinely receives multi-billion dollar contracts from various branches of the United States government. The company's remarkable success at absorbing government largess has been bolstered in large part by the close connections between Vice President Cheney and the company of which he was chief executive for several years during a private sector break in his long political career.
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