Garmon’s business connection is one of a growing number of potential conflicts of interest investigators are focusing on following accusations by the inspector general that the center’s executive director, John B. Barranco, fleeced a separate but related public agency that educates special needs students of more than $10 million. Barranco took an unpaid leave of absence from the center this week.
The inspector general, Gregory W. Sullivan, said Barranco was able to siphon the money through his influence over the board chaired by Garmon, as well as the board that ran the related group, the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative.
One longtime member of the center’s board, Frederick Hembrough, is a cousin of Barranco who received $60,000 from the center a year ago.
“Why employ your cousin in the first place?’’ asked Thomas McLaughlin, a specialist in nonprofit governance at the accounting firm CCR LLP. “A lot of other people are probably equally qualified who are not members of the board.’’
The information about Garmon’s former part-ownership of Adden Furniture came to light as an attorney for the collaborative, Thomas Lent, said it is suspending all payments to the Merrimack Education Center pending a review of Sullivan’s allegations.
The collaborative, an organization of 10 public school districts, teaches special needs students in space rented from the center with services that the center provides.
The collaborative has ceased paying the center to cover rent, transportation, and purported past debts that were criticized by Sullivan in findings released last week after a yearlong investigation.
Sullivan recommended that the collaborative demand that the center return an estimated $11.5 million in payments made over the past five years under two 2006 agreements that Sullivan said are invalid, in part because they covered services provided by the center that were not put out to bid.
