Mismanagement at one of the nation’s largest military housing companies has “put the health and safety of military families at risk,” according to a scathing Senate report released Tuesday.
An eight month investigation by the Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations on Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security found that executives and managers of Balfour Beatty Communities LLC “failed to adequately respond to both repairs and environmental hazards, such as mold in homes on two military bases,” the Fort Gordon Army Base in Georgia and Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.
That left “medically vulnerable spouses and children of U.S. service members” facing “significant health risks,” according to the report.
Balfour operates more than 43,000 home bases across the country, including 1,000 homes in Fort Gordon and 700 homes in Sheppard, according to the report.
The subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said at a hearing Tuesday that the “alarming and disturbing” report showed the “neglect, misconduct and abuse that persisted even after Balfour Beatty pleaded guilty.” guilty of a scheme to defraud the United States.” State.”
The report focused on the time period between 2019 and 2022, a period that included a Justice Department investigation of Balfour for fraud involving employees who submitted false repair reports to obtain performance incentive fees. The company pleaded guilty in December 2021 for the scam, which prosecutors say lasted from 2013 to 2019, and he was ordered to pay $65.4 million in fines and restitution.
Balfour co-chairman Richard Taylor rejected the report’s findings, testifying that the company has made “incredible progress” in the past three years.
“I reject the suggestion that this is a systemic failure,” Taylor said, adding that while “there will always be challenges,” the company has taken steps to improve the repair process and that the cases highlighted in the report are not representative. of the total work of the company.
The panel’s ranking member, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said Tuesday that the report “uncovered troubling practices by Balfour in which lengthy delays in repairs put the health and safety of service members at risk.” and their families and potentially wasted taxpayer money. These practices continued in multiple homes for several months and no action was taken by senior company leaders to prevent harm.”
A former Fort Gordon resident, Army Capt. Samuel Choe, testified that he and his family struggled to get help from Balfour for a toxic mold condition in their home.
“The ramifications of living in our old house on the post are still deeply felt due to the adverse impact it has had on my daughter,” he said during Tuesday’s hearing. Choe said her 11-year-old daughter “developed a potentially fatal mold allergy” during her year and a half in the home.
“Her skin has been devastated by the severity of the rashes that plague her,” Choe said, adding that the skin condition has persisted since they moved in.
“Despite frequent medical attention, both from the military and outside care, his condition remains the same,” said Choe, who went on to say that his “quality of life has been profoundly changed by his condition. Words, deeds, no My testimony will never be able to fully convey the physiological, psychological and emotional anguish he has had to endure and may endure for the rest of his life.”
Balfour’s Taylor said that while he had “empathy” for the captain and his family, he questioned whether there was a correlation between conditions in the home and the daughter’s medical condition.
“It’s their perception of what happened. We have a different perspective,” Taylor said, adding that inspectors from his company found no mold in Choe’s home.
The report says Balfour failed to document Choe’s repeated mold complaints and then sent him a “collection notice” for several hundred dollars after the family moved. The company said the charge was a clerical error.
The report concluded that, “at a minimum, stronger oversight will need to be done by federal agencies with responsibility for overseeing Balfour’s military housing operations to ensure that military families receive the level of on-base housing services they deserve.” .
Reference-www.nbcnews.com