Kuwaiti lawmakers blame ex-oil minister for scandal

KUWAIT, Nov 5 (Reuters) A Kuwait parliament committee said today the former oil minister and other energy officials were to blame for alleged violations in a deal to supply fuel to Halliburton Co.

for the American military in Iraq.

The special committee formed in July by the new parliament -- in which reformist lawmakers are a majority -- added in a statement its members backed a recommendation to send its report to the public prosecutor to investigate the findings.

The former energy minister, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah, is a member of the ruling Sabah family and currently heads the country's security agency. He declined to comment on the committee's statement.

He was replaced in the new cabinet formed in July after opposition figures accused him of trying to meddle in the polls and to block reforms. He has denied any wrong doing over the elections.

A US draft audit in 2004 found evidence that Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of US oil services firm Halliburton, may have overcharged the US government million for bringing oil products for the US army into Iraq via a Kuwait subcontractor, Altanmia Commercial Marketing Co.

Kuwait's previous parliament formed a committee in 2004 to investigate the contract. The committee presented its findings in July 2005 but the report was not debated since the house was dissolved by the ruling emir last June.

The new parliament resurrected the special committee. Its report puts the blame on Sheikh Ahmad and unnamed officials of the international fuel marketing department of state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), which oversees Kuwait's oil sector.

In Kuwait, the energy minister is also KPC chairman.

''They were overseeing the work during the negotiations and drawing up of contracts with Altanmia and the ensuing procedures until the contract's expiry,'' the committee report said.

''They bear responsibility for the legal, financial and administrative violations which marred the contracts with Altanmia Co,'' it added.

The committee voted unanimously to adopt a recommendation that its report ''be sent to the public prosecutor for investigating the facts uncovered, and which have caused harm to public funds, in order to pinpoint those responsible.'' The committee said it was presenting its report to parliament for the house to take appropriate measures. Powerful Islamists and reformists swept Kuwait's June parliamentary poll, raising the possibility of deep tension between the cabinet and the outspoken parliament.

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