Apparent overcharges of more than $200-million in contracts paid for with Iraqi oil money to a Halliburton subsidiary should be “reimbursed expeditiously” by the United States, an international watchdog agency said on Saturday.

The International Advisory and Monitoring Board for the Development of Iraq said in a statement that a special audit had been conducted focusing on Halliburton’s Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) unit for the procurement and distribution of fuel products and the restoration of Iraq’s oil infrastructure.

The monitoring board cited a figure of $208-million, which had been questioned by the US Defence Contract Audit Agency, the Pentagon’s auditing arm.

Iraq’s oil account, called the Development Fund for Iraq, was set up by the United Nations Security Council, along with the monitoring board, to watch over the stewardship of Iraq’s natural resources during the US civil administration of Iraq, which began in May 2003 and ended on June 28, 2004.

The monitoring board’s life was extended after an appointed transitional Iraqi government took over on June 29, 2004.

In May 2005, the board noted “with regret” that the US agency had tried to hide from it more than $200-million in apparent overcharges in contracts paid for with Iraqi oil money and awarded on a non-competitive basis to Halliburton, a company once led by vice-president Dick Cheney.

The US agency had turned over heavily edited audits to the board, stating that the deletions were made to protect trade secrets.

An unedited version of the audit later surfaced, showing the deletions sought to conceal questionable billings.

Maybe those ethics classes should extend beyond the White House?