Contractor Balfour Beatty plc (LON:BBY) has hired a US law firm to investigate allegations pursued by presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren about a US Air Force contract.
The FTSE 250 company’s resident housing arm, Balfour Beatty Communities, has appointed law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
READ: Balfour Beatty jumps as transformation plan helps lift profits in 2018
Democrat Senator Warren has been pushing for an official inquiry into the UK company’s conduct after a Reuters-CBS report alleged that Balfour Beatty falsified maintenance records at Oklahoma’s Tinker Air Force Base in order to help it secure contract bonuses.
One official set of electronic records listed prompt responses to maintenance requests, while another handwritten log showed the company consistently took much longer to finish jobs.
“The Air Force was allowing this to happen, and failing to use its oversight authority to protect residents and taxpayers,” Warren wrote in a letter to the US Air Force last month.
Balfour won a 50-year contract to manage the Tinker base in 2008, as part of a private finance initiative contract worth $410mln to manage thousands of family homes across three US air force bases.
Balfour Beatty said: “We take the allegations in relation to Tinker Air Force Base very seriously as they would contravene our company-wide code of conduct.
“The allegations made do not reflect the culture or the work ethic of over 1,200 employees across Balfour Beatty communities who are dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of conduct and service at all the military facilities for which we are proud to be responsible.”
Balfour Beatty generated US$33mln income from its US military housing business in 2018.