Kerik gone!!!
- withdraws from contract
Kaieteur News
April 12, 2007
Former New York Police Department Commissioner, Bernard Kerik has withdrawn from his contract as a security consultant to the Office of the President and the Minister of Home Affairs.
President Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed this yesterday at a press conference at the Office of the President.
The Head of State said that Kerik took the decision and offered the same reason he offered for the withdrawal from his contract with a Trinidad company.
According to the President, Kerik said that he does not want to taint the country's name or for his clients to be caught up in the furore in which he is embroiled.
The Head of State said that Kerik has decided to withdraw until his unresolved legal troubles in New York are sorted out.
President Jagdeo stressed, however, that the police reform process will go ahead as planned because the British Government has submitted a proposal to which he is to respond next week.
According to him, funds are still being accessed from the Inter-American Development Bank.
He noted that Kerik's role was more of an advisory one to Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, and himself, as well as that of resources mobilisation.
Minister Rohee said last week that Kerik had apparently postponed plans to work as a security consultant for two Caribbean countries because of the unresolved legal troubles.
Kerik was expected to begin a one-year contract here in February.
He was also hired as a consultant by Trinidad, although it was unclear when that job would begin.
But Minister Rohee said that Kerik sent a statement to Trinidadian authorities saying he could not travel while U.S. prosecutors were investigating him.
President Bharrat Jagdeo announced last year that Kerik would begin working as his security adviser despite criticism over the former New York City official's history of alleged ethics violations.
In late 2004, President Bush nominated him for Homeland Security Chief, but Kerik withdrew after acknowledging he had not paid all the taxes for a family nanny-housekeeper and that the woman may have been in the country illegally.
Last June, Kerik pleaded guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from a company that was trying to do business with New York City.
Earlier this week, The Associated Press reported that a person close to the investigation in New York said U.S. prosecutors could indict Kerik on multiple felony counts, including tax evasion, conspiracy to eavesdrop and providing false information.
Kerik has denied any wrongdoing.