Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Alphonso Jackson has announced that he is resigning effective April 18th. In his announcement he cited family issues, but did not go into detail. For the past two years Secretary Jackson had been under Congressional and FBI scrutiny for alleged conflict of interest issues among others. Jackson is a long time friend of President Bush and the President accepted his resignation with regret, calling him “a strong leader and a good man.”

The FBI is conducting a criminal investigation of Secretary Jackson that involves alleged ties between Secretary Jackson and a friend of his who was a construction manager in New Orleans during the post Hurricane Katrina time. It involves a payment of $392,000 made by the department to the unnamed person. There is also another investigation by the Philadelphia Housing Authority. This one involves an allegation that Secretary Jackson made an attempt to penalize the agency because it did not ok a deal with Kenny Gamble, who is a former music producer who now is a real estate developer and is also a friend of the Secretary. There is a law suit pending on this issue.

Because of a statement that he made back in 2006 in which he stated publically that he had actually cancelled a contract because the person said he did not like President Bush, the Inspector General began an investigation of the department which led to Secretary Jackson being called to task for what they call “some problematic instances” revolving around both contracts and grants. One that is mentioned specifically is when Secretary Jackson is alleged to have opposed money being paid to a contracting firm because the firm’ executives were big Democratic donors. The inspector general discovered that the Secretary was able to block the transfer of the money for a “significant period of time.’ Secretary Jackson put the blame on his aids. The Secretary has since said that he lied when he made the statement.

All of these are allegations and nothing has been proven as of yet. While it is known that these things took place, it is unclear just how much the Secretary knew about them. However, when you are the head of an agency, you are the one who will be called on the carpet for just about everything that happens. Resigning will not stop the investigations. Expect the Senate to take some action in the not too distant future.

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