A cloud over Cheney

THE JUSTICE Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, French prosecutors, and the Nigerian government are all investigating allegations that a Halliburton subsidiary paid millions of dollars in bribes to Nigerian officials during the 1990s, when Vice President Dick Cheney was the Halliburton CEO. If such payments were made and Cheney approved them, he could be guilty of violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. If the payments were made and he did not know about them, he could not have been a hands-on leader of his conglomerate. The nation, in any case, deserves answers before it votes in November if, as President Bush has indicated, he retains Cheney as his running mate.

The allegations grew out of a successful bid by an international consortium to build a $4 billion liquefied natural gas plant in oil- and gas-rich Nigeria. The leading member of the team, which is alleged to have paid $180 million in bribes, was a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root. Other members were companies from France, Italy, and Japan.

Late last month Halliburton said in a regulatory filing that the Justice Department and the SEC were looking into the allegations and had asked for information. Halliburton has hired outside lawyers to do an investigation.

Halliburton says it is cooperating with US officials on the case and "has no basis to assume that any of its employees, or employees of the joint venture, has violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."

Nigeria under the late dictator Sani Abacha was notorious for its level of corruption. Working in such an environment is always complicated for US firms, which are supposed to abide by the 1977 Corrupt Practices Act.

Because the Nigerian affair occurred under Cheney's watch at Halliburton, it has the potential to have a greater bearing on his political future than allegations of war profiteering by Halliburton or its subcontractors in Iraq after he left the CEO's chair.

Last week the Defense Department said Halliburton would reimburse it for $27.4 million in possible overcharges for food services in Iraq and Kuwait. In January the company itself said it would repay the government $6.2 million for potential overcharges by a Kuwaiti subcontractor. A third dispute involves $61 million in possibly excess charges for fuel imported to Iraq. The price-gouging on fuel was alleged in December. A month later, Halliburton was nonetheless awarded a $1.2 billion contract by the Army Corps of Engineers to restore the oil industry in southern Iraq.

Defense Department officials owe it to taxpayers to make sure Halliburton does not get one dollar more than it deserves. Justice Department and SEC officials owe it to voters to determine as quickly as possible what role if any Cheney had in any Nigerian bribes. CORRECTION -- An editorial yesterday misstated when President Bush's interview on "Meet the Press" was taped. It was Saturday.