Statement from Graeme Keith

Graeme Keith issued this statement Wednesday night after a legislative hearing on NC prison contracts:

The statement being attributed to me in an unsigned, undated, highly questionable DPS memo and by Secretary Frank Perry in Wednesday’s legislative hearing is a gross misrepresentation. It is nothing more than an attempt to discredit me and turn the conversation away from the dramatic savings that could be achieved by privatizing prison maintenance.

As I have stated previously, neither I nor anybody at TKC Management Services has ever had or expressed any expectation that our company should be considered for or awarded state prison maintenance work on any grounds other than our experience and track record of delivering cost savings while providing high-quality service. It was on this basis that we were awarded the prison maintenance contracts, first in 2006 and again in 2011, in both instances following an open, competitive bidding process.

As Secretary Perry and North Carolina Budget Director Lee Roberts made clear today, the contract extension granted by the state in late 2014 was based on the cost savings achieved by our services. The efforts to discredit TKC Management Services are the result of entrenched interests in the North Carolina Department of Public Safety that are opposed to privatization.

▪ Read more: Public safety chief: Pressure from donor on NC prison contracts, but no ‘quid pro quo’

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Statement from Graeme Keith."