WASHINGTON — One General Accounting Office probe at Bath Iron Works is entering its final stages, but disputes continue to stall a second investigation into cost overruns in the company’s Arleigh Burke AEGIS destroyer program, officials said Monday.

The stalemate between BIW and the GAO’s special investigations office hinges on a disagreement over interviewing procedures that would be used by the GAO, according to BIW spokesman Jim McGregor.

Unless the GAO agrees to withhold information from Rep. John Dingell until the probe is complete, BIW says a company auditor must be present during questioning by GAO specialists. But “they never chose to give that assurance,” McGregor said.

Dingell, as chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has been a harsh critic of BIW’s performance in developing the lead ship in the Navy’s Arleigh Burke AEGIS destroyer program, which has been hampered by cost overruns and delays.

McGregor said there were no obstacles preventing GAO officials from calling employees at home and interviewing them alone during their off-hours.

The special investigation is separate from a GAO audit, which stumbled over a similar GAO-BIW disagreement in the spring. At the time, BIW denied access to GAO unless it agreed not to pass the information on to Dingell. GAO audit director Martin Ferber said the GAO would subpoena the information if necessary.

Since then, “those things were resolved,” a GAO employee said. There was a compromise, he said, but the GAO did not agree to withhold information from Dingell, and it has been able to interview workers individually without another BIW employee being present.