Business Planning And The Halliburton Corporation

Abstract
        While the companies Middle East operation is the subject of scathing audits and investigations, it’s hardly raking in scandalous profits. Indeed, Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), the part of Halliburton’s business that America learned to hate because it was making far too much, is the part of the business that Wall Street hates because it is making far too little. Two debacles loom largest of all: the work in Iraq; and Halliburton’s asbestos –liability problem, which ended up costing $5.1 billion and threatened to bring down the entire company. Even with Humanitarian projects to Mexico the company the company can’t seem to shake a bad image and a distinctly underwhelming bottom line: Since August 2000, when the current CEO took over, Halliburton has reported net losses of nearly $2 billion.

        The Halliburton Corporation has a history of poor planning in the distant and immediate past.   Inquiries into the companies past will reveal a string of legal problems that have haunted them for some time. The corporation once owned a subsidiary called Kellogg, Brown and Root that has been accused of being involved in some scandalous activities in regard to some governmental contracts.
          Halliburton was initially contracted by the government to restore Iraq’s oil fields during Operation Iraqi freedom. They were contracted to receive $365 million for their work. Pentagon auditors though, questioned $45 million of the $365 million they received. Among the serious and persistent problems indentified in the documents were poor planning, intentional overcharging, exorbitant costs, poor cost reporting, and a refusal to cooperate with the government. Halliburton soon found out that maintaining control of the paperwork is a critical part of managing the business. The report comes at a moment of transition for the U.S. effort to rebuild Iraq. The Bush administration recently chose not to seek additional money for reconstructing Iraq, even though the...