Barratt Developments has suspended three employees as part of an ongoing police investigation into alleged misconduct in awarding contracts for new housing developments.
The latest suspensions follow on from London boss Alasdair Baird being suspended from the group after he was arrested with another former Barratt employee by the Metropolitan Police in October. The two have since been released on bail.
The police probe began after Barratt referred the findings of its own internal investigation to the Met in April 2016. Its investigation, conducted the previous year, was itself sparked by an internal audit, which looked into “possible misconduct in the process for awarding and managing certain material and subcontract supply contracts in the London region”.
Following the initial findings of the internal investigation, Barratt appointed a leading accounting firm to conduct an external review of the controls relating to the tendering and procurement processes in the London business.
A Barratt spokesman told CM: “While the Metropolitan Police and internal investigations are ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment.”
Last week Barratt was hit by the departure of Neil Cooper, its finance director, after little more than a year in the job. The company said Cooper’s resignation was unconnected to the investigation.
