Whoa! What Did DeNucci Know?

The Lowell Sun’s Peter Lucas weighs in on the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative scandal (see my previous comments here and here) and performs a bit of (unknowing?) jiu-jitsu.

The piece is driven by an internal leak from the State Auditor’s office where a DeNucci loyalist lets slip that the report leaked by Bump was actually conducted under the former Auditor:

Although an investigation of the program covering 2008 to 2010 had been conducted by former state Auditor Joseph DeNucci, and a draft report written up, you would never know it. That audit, conducted before Bump took office in January, apparently sat on a shelf until Inspector General Gregory Sullivan, who had conducted a parallel investigation with DeNucci, released his explosive report in June that alleged widespread fraud and abuse by Barranco….It is interesting to note that while Bump was late to jump into the fray, she recently dominated the headlines by leaking “her” draft report to the Globe…

Lucas’ piece is intended to highlight how Bump is late to this investigation and is trying to muscle out the other players for publicity.

But the lede is buried.

Former Auditor DeNucci’s office had conducted an audit of Merrimack Special Education Collaborative from 2008 to 2010. So, we are left with two possibilities.

Either they knew about the $10 million to $30 million in fraud that occurred and chose to do nothing to stop it.

Or they missed it altogether.

I’m not sure which is worse. That’s the real story, not the internal politics of the Auditor’s office.