Balfour Beatty Travis Afb - A NEW BEGINNING: After living with broken, broken floors and asbestos in a military barracks in Oklahoma, Nick and Paige Ippolito leave the Navy and move to Texas with their children. /Jessica Lutz
One of the largest private landlords in the U.S. military cheated on maintenance, he found, helping him secure campaign payments while families waited for repairs. The company's actions, the former employee said, amounted to a "bank robbery at the corporate level."
Balfour Beatty Travis Afb
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Oklahoma - When Paige and Nick Ippolito moved into a house in 2015, the floors in the kitchen, living room and hallway were changed. They told the camp's owner, Balfour Beatty Communities, but "nothing was done," according to a report from the maintenance company.
Travis Afb Housing: 7 On Base Options
Nick, a Navy Petty Officer Second Class who lives in Tinker, was worried that his young daughter might lose a finger in the muddy ground. After another splash of water spread across the floor, a factory technician noted in a maintenance log that the eight-month-old baby "could be sick from chewing debris" on the floor.
Official Balfour Beatty maintenance logs available to the Air Force show that the company immediately fixed the problem. The leak, for example, was fixed within 20 minutes, records show. In fact, the software is fake. The family said the repairs took more than a week. The Ippolitos endured other threats for months.
"You think your family is safe, and then you find out your kids are eating asbestos flooring. It makes me sick," said Nick Ippolito. "They just look like dollars."
Balfour Beatty, one of the U.S. military's largest real estate suppliers, has falsified Tinker Air Force Base maintenance logs for years, a review of company records, Air Force reports and interviews with former employees. Fraudulent admissions caused the company to respond to tenant complaints and unsafe conditions, and helped it earn millions in "performance incentive fees" for quality services that often go unfulfilled. conditions. The effort left the family stranded and convinced Air Force brass to ignore warnings about the problems caused by the base's staff.
The Patriot (joint Base Charleston) By Diggle Publishing Company
Over the years, Balfour Beatty has maintained two sets of maintenance books at Tinker, , in collaboration with CBS News, found. Fake official electronic records were presented to the Air Force. The company also kept accurate handwritten documents to track what actually happened. These records, which were never disclosed to the military but were reviewed in part by , show that weeks often passed before the threats were resolved.
Robert Whittington, Balfour Beatty's manager at Tinker from 2014 to July 2017, said he reviewed the work order information in the electronic maintenance log, as directed by the boss and forced employees to delete unfinished work orders, leaving late responses. the company.
SERVICE CALL: This handwritten note shows a maintenance call - second from top - dated July 7, 2016. Names and phone numbers have been blacked out to protect identity. STORY about
JOB LOGGED: This computer log shows a similar call on July 12, five days later. Names and personal information have been blurred to conceal identity. STORY about
U.s. Air Force Landlord Falsified Records To Boost Income: Documents
Whittington said he knows the fake records left families at risk. A retired Air Force veteran, he said he was disappointed in his actions and, after struggling with his conscience and refusing other orders to change records, resigned.
"It's like they're doing a corporate bank robbery," Whittington said. "It got to the point where I woke up in the morning and asked myself, 'Okay, how many people do I have to check today?'
Whittington's claim is backed up by numerous internal memos to Balfour Beatty employees instructing them on how to commit fraud. It has documented at least 65 cases in 2016 and 2017 where Balfour Beatty staff returned repair requests, Balfour Beatty staff submitted incorrect claim documents for time requirements responding to, or closing pending maintenance requests.
Such problems are familiar to some Air Force personnel stationed at Tinker. For years they have accused the Air Force of dubious record keeping and slum-like living conditions. But their efforts to hold Balfour Beatty accountable were thwarted by the Air Force Civil Engineering Center, or AFCEC, a group based in San Antonio, Texas, tasked with overseeing private landowners.
F.e. Warren Housing Developer Raided By Fbi, Air Force
At least 18 times since 2015, Air Force officials have warned Tinker that Balfour Beatty's maintenance logs contain incorrect information, so the company appears to have responded quickly to service requests. , the Air Force reported. "We do not feel that urgent, urgent and routine work orders are being accurately recorded," said Balfour Beatty's periodic performance report.
Three months after the quarter, the Air Force Engineering Center downplayed those concerns, giving the company a high-quality service mark and recommending that Tinker officials drop their complaints. "It doesn't matter if they are in compliance or not, they will still be paid," a local official wrote to Tinker in a February 2018 email.
In the failure to hold the owner of the tinker to account is a conflict between the Air Force. On one side is the Air Force Base's home office on the site, whose main mission is to assist residents and supervise Balfour Beatty on a day-to-day basis. The other side is AFCEC, responsible for the development and management of all private housing projects of the Air Force. While AFCEC also has an oversight role, it is also responsible for ensuring long-term relationships with the landlords it serves. Over the years, AFCEC has always sided with its partner, Balfour Beatty.
Presented with evidence of years of false reporting, slow repairs and dangerous conditions at its premises, Balfour Beatty said the company knew in 2016 that it had An employee at Tinker was "not sure," but did not provide specifics. It described it as an isolated incident and said it is working with the Air Force to strengthen its maintenance system. The company did not comment on cases of false record keeping, internal memos and other irregularities that were documented before and after 2016 at Tinker and other bases.
Fruits In A Hand F Hi Res Stock Photography And Images
Balfour Beatty said it was cooperating fully with investigations by the Air Force and other government agencies into its business. "As an organisation, the BBC does not tolerate and will not tolerate falsification of recordings in any way," the company said in a statement.
In December, there were widespread cases of illegal construction and safety hazards in new housing reported by private companies, including Balfour Beatty, built on American bases. Since that report, the Air Force said, it has withheld corporate costs for Tinker, pending a review of the case.
In response to new findings about the company, John Henderson, the Air Force's assistant secretary for installations, said in March that he had "real problems" with Balfour Beatty's performance in Tinker. But he said he doesn't believe housing companies were forced to change maintenance to get incentive fees.
In June, after revealing more details about the report, he said he was awaiting the results of an ongoing investigation to determine what happened. He said there were "maintenance discrepancies" and that "fraudulent allegations" involving Tinker and at least two company bases had been submitted to the Air Force Special Investigations Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the year 2017.
Balfour Beatty's Mold, Ant Infestations, And Leaks: Inside Homes Managed By One Of The Military's Largest Housing Contractors
"We trust our private sector partners to act with integrity," Henderson said. "If that doesn't happen, those in charge must be held accountable for better results to ensure we continue to earn the trust of our Airmen and our nation."
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations does not comment on the investigation, said Linda Card, the agency's chief of public affairs. But he added: "Discussions are still ongoing" with the US Department of Justice "about how (criminal or civil) - if any - actions can be taken against Balfour Beatty."
"I woke up this morning and asked myself, 'Well, how many people am I going to interview today?'" Robert Whittington, former Balfour Beatty manager
Regardless of the outcome of that investigation, the Air Force plans to increase transparency by creating an automated maintenance request process that allows the public to see the status of work orders, Henderson said. It also plans to reform the incentive fee structure, the details of which are still being worked out. He defended the work of the Air Force's engineering headquarters, saying it took the allegations against Balfour Beatty seriously and conducted an on-site investigation into the company at Tinker.
Travis Base Starts Earth Day Early With Urban Garden Contest
News of accounting irregularities from a major contractor comes as US lawmakers scrutinize the Pentagon's family program. The 2020 defense spending bill proposed by the Senate Armed Services Committee includes provisions to prevent fraudulent work orders, committee staff said, on in part because of concerns that millions were paid for falsified maintenance records.
"Our military families deserve good housing while they serve, and that includes ethical and fair housing," said Jim Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, the committee's chairman.
Since 1996 the military has the
Balfour beatty complaints, jobs at balfour beatty, balfour beatty vandenberg afb, balfour beatty whiteman afb, balfour beatty investments, balfour beatty beale afb, balfour beatty minot afb, balfour beatty lackland afb, balfour beatty application, balfour beatty employee handbook, balfour beatty construction, balfour beatty luke afb
0 Comments