Contractor Protests 'biased' Treatment At Hearing

RICHARD LARDNER

WASHINGTON (AP) — KBR Inc., a major military contractor whose fees have generated criticism, says it was subjected to "judgmental and biased" treatment by a special panel investigating waste and fraud in war spending.

The May 4 hearing held by the bipartisan Wartime Contracting Commission was a one-sided affair that unfairly trashed the company's reputation, according to William Bodie, KBR's interim president for government and infrastructure.

"The hallmark of any serious evaluative body should be a rigorous and unbiased commitment to collecting data and perspectives prior to the assemblage of conclusions," Bodie wrote in a May 12 letter to commission leaders. ...