WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (AFP) - The deputy secretary of homeland security, admiral James Loy, has resigned as the White House was still searching for a candidate to take over the department's top job, outgoing secretary Tom Ridge said Monday.
Loy will stay on until March 1 or until his successor is confirmed, Ridge said.
His resignation comes as the White House was scrambling to find a candidate to replace Ridge, after former New York City police chief Bernard Kerik withdrew his name amid a scandal over an undocumented Mexican nanny he once employed.
The massive department groups together about 22 agencies charged with domestic security, including immigration, customs, transportation security and the Coast Guard. And with about 180,000 employees, it is notoriously difficult to manage.
Kerik, 49, was nominated December 3 to replace Ridge as head of the department created after the September 11, 2001 attacks to protect the country against future strikes.
When Kerik withdrew his name eight days later, the White House said it was over the immigrant nanny concerns, realizing it would become a potential roadblock, but the press raised other problems with his nomination.
Newsday said Kerik was forced to testify Thursday in a civil lawsuit, where he was probed about an alleged affair with a corrections officer when he headed New York's prison system.
And a New York Daily News investigation found that Kerik failed to disclose thousands of dollars in gifts that he accepted when serving as police commissioner and prisons commissioner.
12/20/2004 21:15 GMT - AFP