Irish Adoption Agency Funded Despite Vietnam Suspension UPDATED

This is an interesting article because it reflects what goes on in the adoption industry everywhere. The funds paid for provision of specific services often end up being used for other things–funding for future business opportunities. Business development not social services. The children do not come first when adoption is allowed to be a business.

“THE HEALTH Service Executive paid more than €200,000 in 2010 to an adoption agency in Cork which deals with adoptions from Vietnam, despite the fact adoptions from that country were suspended in May 2009.

The money was paid through the HSE in Cork to the Cork-based Helping Hands adoption agency, set up in 2005 to assist couples adopting from Vietnam.

After controversy concerning Vietnamese adoptions the bilateral agreement between the two states lapsed in May 2009. Adoptions from that country have been suspended since but are likely to resume next year when Vietnam ratifies the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption.

According to an internal HSE memo dated April 12th, 2010, from finance manager PJ Ronayne to principal social worker Pat O’Dwyer – obtained under the Freedom of Information Act – 50 per cent of the first two tranches of €198,800 were to be paid by May 2010, with the remainder of these tranches to be paid when a review was complete.

Yesterday Helping Hands chief executive Sharon O’Driscoll told The Irish Times she thought the agency got more money in January relating to 2010. She said it had received money for 2011, but did not know how much. Speaking from her home, she said: “I don’t have the figures in front of me.”

Asked what the money was spent on, given adoptions from Vietnam were suspended in 2009, she said: “We’re still operational. We are sending post-placement reports to Vietnam.” Applicants were legally bound by Vietnam to do so, she said.

After the suspension, Helping Hands still had clients going over to collect children in cases where adoptions were already processed.

In a report prepared for the HSE on March 31st, 2010, to support the funding request met in April, Ms O’Driscoll listed the agency’s work between May and December 2009 as including pre-travel courses for 79 applicants, arranging travel to Vietnam, working on their behalf to finalise adoptions and registering children with applicants back in Ireland.

In his memo, Mr Ronayne pointed out that, because of the difficulties with Vietnam, the Helping Hands licence to operate had been suspended, and he expressed concern at its work.

“I believe that the change in status of Vietnamese licence materially impacts the provision of services for which they are being funded by the HSE. It appears they are using resources to investigate and research access adoptions in other countries (Philippines, South Korea, Thailand) . . . However, the timescale is likely to be well over 12 months you need to satisfy yourself regarding the appropriate [sic] of using HSE funding in this way,” he said.

After the passing of the Adoption Act in 2010, incorporating the Hague Convention into Irish law, the Adoption Authority replaced the Adoption Board and took over a number of new functions. These include the accreditation of agencies dealing with adoption.

Since it was set up in November 2010 the authority has accredited 11 agencies dealing with adoption, but not Helping Hands. “We hope to hear about our accreditation in the next fortnight,” Ms O’Driscoll told The Irish Times.

The HSE memos also record concerns over the lack of a service level agreement between it and Helping Hands.

An e-mail from Albert O’Donoghue in the Department of Health and Children in June 2009 to Mr Ronayne asked: “Would you be able to let me know what governance arrangements are in place with Helping Hands, is there a service level agreement or contract in place and if so what obligation does it place on them in terms of reporting to the HSE?”

Helping Hands has received well over €2 million since 2006.”

Adoption agency funded despite Vietnam suspension
[Irish Times 10/10/11 by Carol Coulter]

Update: The amount paid to Helping Hands is over DOUBLE what the initial report indicated. With Vietnam ratifying Hague and the enthusiastic support of the Irish government on the announcement, this money’s use is even more suspicious.

“THE HEALTH Service Executive in Cork has confirmed it paid almost €420,000 to an adoption agency specialising in adoptions from Vietnam for 2010, despite the fact that no adoptions from Vietnam had taken place since 2009. This is double the amount previously reported.

Further State money came to the agency from the National Lottery, according to the HSE, but it was unable to give any information as to the amount.

Adoptions from Vietnam into Ireland were suspended following the lapse of a bilateral agreement. The Helping Hands Mediation Agency was set up in 2005 to assist couples adopting from Vietnam, but its authorisation to work with agencies in Vietnam was withdrawn by the Vietnamese government following the lapsing of the agreement in May 2009.

Since then the Cork-based agency has continued in existence, and has sought accreditation as a mediation agency from the Adoption Authority, established under the 2010 Adoption Act which also ratified the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption. According to the HSE, it continues to receive queries from couples seeking to adopt. It says it has dealt with the Vietnamese authorities in relation to outstanding adoptions and forwarded post-placement reports.” [Postplacement reports is a bogus explanation as they were already prepaid by the adoptive parents. Dealing with “outstanding adoptions” makes more sense…just exactly how WAS that money used for “outstanding adoptions” on the Vietnamese side? ]

“Last month The Irish Times reported that Helping Hands had received €200,000 for 2010, despite the suspension of adoptions from Vietnam. This figure was based on internal HSE memos obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. However, in response to a series of questions from this newspaper, the HSE in Cork has confirmed that it paid the agency €280,000 in 2010 and a further €136,780 in 2011, for work carried out in 2010, amounting to €416,780 for that year.

In a statement to The Irish Times, the HSE said: “The Health Service Executive has ceased funding the Helping Hands Adoption Mediation Agency (HHAMA). A meeting took place in late 2010 between the HSE and HHAMA to review the activities of the agency and to discuss HSE funding.

“The HSE decided to cease funding the agency as there was uncertainty in regards to the accreditation status of HHAMA under the new Adoption Authority. This HSE funding was provided to HHAMA for services in relation to the inter-country adoption agreement between Ireland and Vietnam in accordance with Irish Adoption Board regulations and requirements.”

It said that while the agency was unable to carry out mediation/adoption work, it had a substantial volume of post-placements on its books. The Adoption Authority confirmed that the process of Helping Hands seeking accreditation was ongoing.

The authority also stated that post-placement reports on adoptions for the sending country are not a requirement of the Irish State. It added that adoptive parents have already paid for the transmission, translation and notarisation of reports. This raises the question of why the HSE is providing funding for post-placement reports, if they are not a requirement of the Irish State and if parents already pay for them.

Chief executive of Helping Hands Sharon O’Driscoll said yesterday she was not available for comment outside office hours.

Asked to clarify the status of the Helping Hands, the authority stated: “HHAMA is currently an applicant for accreditation. With regard to the legitimacy of funding, the accreditation process will consider, inter alia, the level of funding declared, the sources of that funding, whether funding is well-managed, whether it relates to legitimate expenses and expenditure and whether, in the view of funding provided by State funders, the funds have been properly used and (where appropriate) have met the terms of any Service Level Agreement that may be in place.”
Adoptions funded despite suspension
[Irish Times 11/14/11 by Carol Coulter]

Update 2: “The HSE confirmed the Helping Hands Mediation Agency, based in Cork, was funded to the tune of €35,000 in 2012.
The HSE previously stated it had ceased funding the agency in Oct 2011.
However, in a statement the HSE said the money was for the finalisation of works already committed to before Nov 2010 and which was carried out in 2011.
“All this has now been completed so no further funding will be issued to them unless they receive accreditation,” the HSE said. [WHY?]
It has previously been reported that the HSE paid almost €420,000 for work carried out in 2010. This was broken up into two payments of €280,000 in 2010 and €136,780 in 2011. The agency has also received funding from the National Lottery in the past.
Founded it 2005 by Sharon O’Driscoll, a former member of the Adoption Board, Helping Hands was initially accredited to act as a mediation agency for couples wishing to adopt from Vietnam.
However, its authorisation to work in the country was withdrawn by the Vietnamese government following the lapsing of its bilateral agreement with Ireland in May 2009.
Ireland chose not to resume the agreement  following concerns about adoption practices in the country raised in Unicef’s International Social Services report published in November of the same year.
Helping Hands was specifically singled out for criticism in the report for the fees it charged potential adoptive parents.
The agency is still in operation but has not yet been accredited by the Adoption Authority (AAI) under the Adoption Act. Despite this, it has continued to be funded by the HSE.
Arc Adoption is the only agency  accredited by the AAI to work with Vietnam. This has been forwarded by the AAI to the Vietnamese authorities for  approval. Arc Adoption has received no funding from the HSE.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, the chief executive of Helping Hands, Sharon O’Driscoll, said the funding was for the transmission, translation, and notarisation of post-placement reports on adoptions for Vietnam. She said the agency carried out 1,622 such reports in 2011.
“You need office facilities and have to pay people and cover overheads to do that. The board of Helping Hands is fully committed to an ethical and transparent adoption process.”
“We are very genuine in our work. Every record is scanned into a database so that there is a computer and paper record. In the future, if any adopted person wants to access it, then a complete record is there for them,” Ms O’Driscoll said.  ”

HSE gave funds to unaccredited adoption agency

[Irish Examiner 5/28/12 by Conall Ó Fátharta]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update 3:“A review of the financial statements of Cork-based Helping Hands Adoption Mediation Agency, carried out on behalf of the Adoption Authority of Ireland, expressed reservations about how the agency treated the grant money in its accounts.

The report was forwarded to the HSE by the AAI in early Nov 2012.

The agency, which was accredited by the AAI five months earlier, has arranged more than 600 adoptions from Vietnam for Irish couples.

In 2009, it was directly criticised in an International Social Service report for Unicef into adoption practices in Vietnam for the lack of transparency over how it reported an increase in the fees it charged adoptive parents.

The heavily redacted accounting report, commissioned as part of the agency’s application for accreditation, expressed “reservations concerning the basis on which grant and other income was recognised in the annual financial statements”.

The financial review, carried out by accountants Crowleys DFK on behalf of the AAI, found that Helping Hands’ accounting treatment had the effect of “smoothing out” the company’s results in the financial statements over the period 2007 to 2010.

“It appears that a portion of the HSE grant income towards the annual running costs in respect of 2007 was treated as deferred income in the financial statements of that year,” the report states.

“In our opinion, the full amount of such funding should have been included as income in the 2007 financial statements.

“In our opinion it was incorrect for HSE grant income to be deferred in HHAMA’s [Helping Hands] financial statements.”

The report says Helping Hands’ accounting policy for income was “not sufficiently comprehensive to allow a clear understanding of how income is calculated and recognised in HHAMA’s financial statements”.

It was “unable to gain further clarification” on this policy from Helping Hands or its auditor.

The report, released to the Irish Examiner by the HSE following an appeal to the Information Commissioner, says that while it is appropriate for grant income to be deferred in certain circumstances, grant income for general overheads and day-to-day running expenses and operating costs should not be deferred.

“On the basis of our work we found that HSE funding allocations for 2007 and 2008 were not fully recognised as income in the financial statements of those years,” the report states.

“A total of €170,393 was treated as deferred income and therefore not recognised in HHAMA’s Income and Expenditure Account until subsequent years. €143,792 of this total was included in income in the 2009 financial statements, €11,600 in the 2010 financial statements and a balance of €15,000 remained in deferred income at Dec 31, 2010.”

Crowleys DFK report also says: “In 2009 an amount of €99,000 due to HHAMA from HSE in respect of its 2009 allocation was not included in the financial statements as income. In 2010 an amount due of €46,534 was omitted.”

Speaking to a newspaper earlier this month, Helping Hands chief executive Sharon O’Driscoll said the AAI had put her agency’s accounts “through the wringer” and that no “smoking gun” had been uncovered.

A PR company acting for Helping Hands was contacted on Thursday in relation to this report but, at the time of going to print, declined to provide a comment.

In a statement, the HSE said it had met formally with Helping Hands and that “funding has been accounted for to HSE satisfaction”. However, it said funding for the agency in 2014 “remains under consideration”.”

Adoption body got €200k HSE grant in spite of reporting errors[Irish Examiner 10/19/13 by Conall Ó Fátharta]