Bowcott plans legal challenge

Former Amec Construction Services managing director Steve Bowcott is to take Amec to court following his dismissal last month.

CJ understands that Bowcott is in discussions with his legal team after an appeal via Amec’s internal procedures failed last week.

An Amec spokesman confirmed that Bowcott was dismissed for "failing to disclose a conflict of interest when procuring a contract for a public relations and communications contract".

It is claimed that Bowcott did not follow Amec procedures to let the contract and that it didn’t go out to competitive tender.

Amec refused to go into any further detail as to which company was involved in the communications contract, believed to be worth between £150,000 and £250,000.

Bowcott’s departure was followed by an internal memo sent out to all Amec’s offices that stated: "Steve Bowcott, head of Amec Construction Services, has been dismissed following substantial breaches of Amec’s code of conduct."

Bowcott then contested the dismissal, but it was upheld.

Amec insisted that the letting of the contract was the only reason for his dismissal. This is at odds with the story in last week’s CJ, where a company insider said that Bowcott’s departure was due to a culture clash between him and Amec chief executive Sir Peter Mason. John Moss was duly appointed as Bowcott’s successor.

Quite where this leaves Bowcott’s expected appointment as chief executive of Geoffrey Osborne is unclear.

CJ pressed Osborne for confirmation of his appointment. In response, the contractor issued the following statement: "There has been speculation in the media recently regarding the appointment of Stephen Bowcott as the new chief executive.

"It is not our company policy to comment on the recruitment of senior staff until the board is in a position to make a formal announcement. However, for the sake of clarity, as yet no appointment for the position of chief executive has been made."