A bribery scheme involving janitorial contracts and a luxury apartment led to a guilty plea Thursday by a former official of both DeKalb County and Georgia World Congress Center.
Patrick Jackson, 56, admitted that he used his position as manager of janitorial services for DeKalb and building services manager for the World Congress Center to help a janitorial company gain and maintain contracts. In return, the company provided Jackson with the apartment and other amenities.
“This dishonest conduct threatens to undermine the integrity of the contracting system and the quality of the goods and services provided pursuant to those contracts,” said Acting U.S. Attorney John A. Horn in a news release.
Jackson worked for both government entities simultaneously, though neither knew that. DeKalb was paying Jackson $65,000 a year, while Georgia World Congress Center paid him more than $86,000. The scheme began to unravel after he appeared on the cover of a trade publication, Waste & Recycling News, and DeKalb learned of his second job. Jackson then quit on the spot at DeKalb.
He also quit his job at Georgia World Congress Center when it began asking questions about ever-increasing contracts. Eventually, it called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI also joined the investigation.
The news release didn’t identify the name of the company involved in the bribery scheme. But documents the Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained from World Congress Center showed it was Rite Way Service, based in Birmingham, Ala. An attorney for the company had said that it changed ownership and cooperated with the investigation.
