YOU’RE OUT: Louis Barani was fired for cozy relationships with vendors after a probe that was sparked by a Post story in February (inset). (
)
The Port Authority’s chief of security has been sacked for holding backroom talks with vendors competing for lucrative PA contracts, sources told The Post.
Louis Barani — who earned $144,000 a year to help turn the new World Trade Center into a fortress — was forced out Friday after eight years.
As part of his punishment, he can’t even participate in any PA procurement processes while working the private sector in the future, sources said.
He is permanently barred from any involvement in bidding for future contracts to be awarded by the massive agency, which runs the WTC, the airports, the Hudson River crossings and the PATH train line, they said.
“He was found to have been talking to bidders,” one agency official said. “It’s a big deal. It appeared improper. Having side conversations is not allowed.”
Barani did not respond to requests for comment.
PA spokesman Steve Coleman said only, “Lou retired. We will decline further comment.”
Barani doesn’t qualify for a pension because he had only eight years on the job. His top responsibility was the security design for the new WTC, an effort planned to give the site Pentagon-grade defenses after two terrorist strikes in 20 years.
But he came under scrutiny in February after a Post report detailed the military-style technology — and agency officials started asking more questions about what was in place and what was coming up.
That led them to discover that Barani had been secretly communicating with security vendors despite his role as one of the key officials responsible for awarding contracts.
Barani also was targeted by his new bosses for having “too cozy” a relationship with the NYPD, sources said.
PA and NYPD officials have been feuding for a decade over security plans for lower Manhattan, and Barani had made “verbal commitments on WTC security issues to NYPD that we are unaware of and have zero intention to honor,’’ one PA source said.
The source predicted that “Barani’s departure will likely create more friction with NYPD.”
He is the latest in a growing line of top officials ousted since Gov. Cuomo began consolidating his authority at the PA, operated jointly by the governors of New York and New Jersey.
In the fall, Cuomo installed Pat Foye as executive director, and since then heads have been rolling almost nonstop.
Just two weeks ago, Foye booted Edward Welch, the chief of WTC security.
Foye and his New Jersey counterparts have been especially aggressive in dealing with the PA’s security divisions after a long series of foul-ups showed the agency to be plagued by embarrassments.