state Department of Human Resources’ oversight of a group home company was
compromised by the relationship between an agency official and the company.
DHR is looking into whether the official, Elisha B. Pulivarti, is a
director of Evershine Residential Services Inc., despite a state regulation
barring agency employees from serving on boards of companies it licenses.
The advocates said the department probe, or an independent investigation,
should go further.
“If someone can have influence over the frequency or nature of the
inspections, that defeats the purpose of a licensing agency,” said Edward T.
Kilcullen Jr., state coordinator for Maryland Court Appointed Special
Advocates Association, which assigns volunteers to represent foster children
in the Juvenile Court system. He was one of three child advocates who, along
with a government watchdog, urged an investigation after reports that two
Evershine officials said Pulivarti is a member of the company’s board.
Pulivarti, who denies serving on Evershine’s board, is the executive
director of the Governor’s Office on Asian-Pacific American Affairs, a
$60,000-a-year job. The office is part of DHR, which licenses 10 Evershine
homes housing 26 boys. The department pays Evershine $104,115 a year per
child.
Pulivarti, 55, of Beltsville is friendly with the company’s chief executive
and has done work for him, but insists he merely advised Evershine as it
reconstituted its board, and was not a member, a DHR spokesman said. Pulivarti
did not return calls.
The spokesman, Norris West, said the agency was continuing to look into
whether Pulivarti is a director of Evershine, but not whether the licensing
and monitoring of the Owings Mills company were affected by any relationship
the official had with the company.
“I don’t think that until [Wednesday] anyone in licensing knew who Elisha
Pulivarti was,” West said.
State Sen. Ulysses Currie, who has scheduled hearings on the regulation of
group homes, said yesterday that he would ask Attorney General J. Joseph
Curran Jr. to join lawmakers in a general review of the regulatory system.
Currie, chairman of the Budget and Taxation Committee, said he telephoned
Curran yesterday but they had not yet spoken.
Sambhu N. Banik, a Bowie resident who serves on the Maryland Commission on
Human Relations, said Pulivarti attended a gathering Banik organized for Lt.
Gov. Michael S. Steele last year and participated in a recent celebration
kicking off Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.
Banik praised Pulivarti’s work raising Asian-American awareness. “He
represents the governor well. He is very active in advocating the goals and
the message of the governor,” Banik said.
Pulivarti is active in Prince George’s County political circles and is a
part-time inspector for that county’s liquor board.
His official biography says he is director of public relations for a
charity of the same name as one founded by Joseph Skariah, Evershine’s chief
executive.
An Evershine board member and the company’s assistant executive director
say Pulivarti is a director and participated in the board’s decision Sunday to
place Skariah on leave pending an examination of the firm’s business
practices.
An investigation by The Sun this year of the regulation of the state-funded
group homes documented that Skariah expensed Caribbean cruises, luxury SUVs
and meals while making $135,275 a year. Skariah has acknowledged using $24,000
in group home funds in 2002 to settle a sexual harassment complaint. He also
employed his wife, who made $74,813. And together they received another
$32,400 renting two houses to Evershine.
DHR officials have said they did not know about the spending. They could
not produce an inspection report on Evershine by a former director who was
responsible for inspecting the company in 2003 and 2004.
