Ex-Workers Say Landlord at San Antonio's Lackland AFB and Other Military Bases Faked Maintenance Records

Military landlord Balfour Beatty Communities falsified maintenance records for housing on bases including San Antonio's Lackland AFB, according to a Reuters report.

The manipulated reports gave the false impression that the U.K.-based company was meeting maintenance requirements, in turn helping officials reap millions in bonuses, according to the story.

Reuters spoke to ex-employees including Stacy Nelson, who managed Balfour housing at Lackland from 2013 to 2016. She told the wire service she felt pressure to manipulate data to make it look like the company was hitting goals.

“You either make these numbers match so we can get the incentive fees, or you may not have a job tomorrow,” she told Reuters. “We fudged the numbers, and even now it’s not easy to say that. I hate to admit it.”

Balfour workers' manipulated records at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma and Malmstrom AFB in Montana, according to Reuters. Two of the employees who spoke to the news agency had been fired for falsifying records.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, on Monday asked the House and Senate armed services committees to investigate and take action to ensure safe housing on military facilities.

“Forging maintenance records in order to take home millions in bonuses is the definition of immoral,” Castro said in an e-mailed statement.

The Reuters story comes months after viral photos of mold at Lackland dorms forced an investigation by the base. It also follows a federal lawsuit by families alleging they were exposed to unsafe conditions in housing at San Antonio's Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.

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