US Military Owner Put Families at Risk Even After Fraud Claim, Senate Inquiry Says


A bird flies past the US Capitol building in Washington, U.S., March 17, 2022. REUTERS/Emily Elconin

Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

April 26 (Reuters) – Balfour Beatty Communities, one of the largest private landlords in the U.S. military, continues to put the health of service members and their families at risk, even after pleading guilty last year to defrauding to the US government and be fined $65 million. found a Senate investigation that was released Tuesday.

During their eight-month investigation, Senate investigators said they found evidence of environmental hazards in two military housing communities, including mold, faulty gas furnaces, leaking roofs and asbestos problems, according to the report released by the Standing Subcommittee. of Investigations of the US Senate

Senate staff also said they discovered inaccuracies in Balfour Beatty’s military housing maintenance documentation, such as those previously identified from 2013 to 2019 in a Justice Department case that resulted in the company pleading guilty to defrauding the government of USA last December.

Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

At the bases examined in the congressional investigation, Army Fort Gordon in Georgia and Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, Balfour Beatty’s housing management practices have continued to “jeopardize the health and safety of military families,” says the report.

On Monday, Balfour Beatty said in a statement that the company had not yet seen the Senate report and was not aware of any recent wrongdoing. The company has enacted a new incentive fee compliance program as well as new mold prevention procedures.

“The company always responds to maintenance requests promptly,” the statement says.

In 2019, Reuters described how some Balfour Beatty employees falsified maintenance documents at Air Force bases to help the company qualify for lucrative incentive fee payments. Service members were exposed to asbestos, vermin, mold, and raw sewage.

Read the Reuters investigation here https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-military-lackland/

The Reuters reports prompted an investigation by the Air Force and the Justice Department.

The subcommittee’s findings were released ahead of a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, “Mistreatment of Military Families in Privatized Housing,” in which senators, including Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, plan to hear from military members. and question company executives, including Balfour. Beatty Communities President Rick Taylor.

Service members are expected to describe their experiences at the Balfour Beatty home and health problems they believe were caused by mold and other hazards. The subcommittee is scheduled to call Balfour executives to testify under oath, according to a list of witnesses from the hearing.

The subcommittee said its investigation was based on visits to military bases and 11,000 pages of records, including work order data and internal company communications, a dozen interviews with military families and interviews with 11 current and former Balfour employees. Beatty. The company operates 43,000 homes at 55 Army, Navy and Air Force installations across the United States, according to the report.

Balfour Beatty Communities is a unit of UK infrastructure conglomerate Balfour Beatty Plc (BALF.L). It is one of several major real estate companies serving as landlords on US military bases under a decades-old housing privatization program.

Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Information from Joshua Schneyer and MB Pell. Edited by Ronnie Greene

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.



Reference-www.reuters.com

Leave a Comment