Saturday, October 31, 2015

McCrory Intervened in "Pay-to-Play" Corruption

From reporting today by the Raleigh News & Observer:
Graeme Keith Sr., a Charlotte developer and retired banker, pursued private maintenance contracts in state prisons since 1999. Keith’s contracts at two prisons were set to expire Dec. 31, 2014; a third would have ended four months later. According to a Department of Public Safety memo, Keith told prison officials and McCrory that “he had been working on this project ‘private prison maintenance’ for over ten (10) years and during that time had given a lot of money to candidates running for public office and it was now time for him to get something in return.”
The Keith Corp. got the contract extension after McCrory intervened with prison officials. We call that bribery and public corruption. Along with this bottom-line: privatization of prison maintenance "did not lead to significant savings."

Pals in matching sweaters: McCrory, far left,
 hanging onto Graeme Keith Sr.
To his credit, Secretary of Public Safety Frank Perry opposed The Guv on the contract extension, saying that "private maintenance wasn’t saving money and posed a greater security risk."

Keeping his bases covered, Keith was also a big contributor to leading Democratic candidates when they ran the joint.

The FBI is now investigating and interviewing the people involved in this piece of political bilge.

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