Britain's business secretary has called for a fast-tracked investigation into the collapse of construction giant and state contractor Carillion.

Greg Clark says in a statement Tuesday he asked the insolvency service and the official receiver to expedite their inquiry. Clark says that in particular, he asked that the investigation look not only at present directors but previous directors.

Carillion had contracts for public services and public/private services, such as providing school dinners and carrying out rail improvement. Company executives are under investigation for protecting their bonuses even as the failure of the company put some 43,000 jobs at risk worldwide.

Opposition parties have criticized the government for continuing to award contracts to Carillion as it issued three profit warnings and struggled to finance 900 million pounds ($1.24 billion) of debt.