THE HELPING Hands Adoption Mediation Agency (HHAMA), which mediated adoptions between Ireland and Vietnam, said yesterday that a report into its operations had found no evidence of impropriety in its expenditure of fees charged to adoptive parents.
There was no representative of the authors of the report, Grant Thornton, at the press conference, but a summary of its conclusions was provided by HHAMA.
The document read: “We have found no evidence of impropriety with regard to the day-to-day running costs associated with the provision of HHAMA’s professional facilitation services.”
Asked why the full report was not available, the agency’s chief executive, Sharon O’Driscoll, said it had been advised by Grant Thornton that publication was not possible for data protection reasons.
Last October the Minister for Children Barry Andrews announced an inquiry into the operation of Helping Hands by the Adoption Board, the regulatory body for adoptions in Ireland. Its mediation licence was revoked by the Vietnamese government in June, following the lapsing of a bilateral agreement on adoption. No new adoptions between the countries have been processed since.
The Government decided not to renew the bilateral agreement and instead to await the ratification of the Hague Convention on inter-country adoptions, which will take place when the Adoption Bill is passed in the coming weeks.This followed the publication of a critical report on adoptions in Vietnam by UNICEF’s social service (ISS).
Ms O’Driscoll told a press conference in Dublin yesterday that in response to the Adoption Board inquiry, the agency commissioned Grant Thornton to examine its disbursement of the $2,100 which each applicant family paid for its support services. Each applicant also paid $9,000 to the Vietnamese authorities in “humanitarian aid”, which was a fixed cost not set by the HHAMA and was not part of the report.
Since its establishment in 2006, HHAMA has also received €1.9 million from the HSE and the National Lottery. The disbursement of this sum was not examined either by Grant Thornton.
HHAMA’s annual report was distributed at the press conference, but this did not contain any accounts. Ms O’Driscoll said these were sent separately to the Adoption Board, the HSE and the Minister.
Asked why it was necessary to commission an additional financial report when HHAMA’s accounts are audited, Ms O’Driscoll said this was to facilitate the Adoption Board and also to satisfy themselves that the agency was working in everyone’s best interests. They wanted a more detailed examination of the $2,100 than that carried out by their auditors, she said.
She said the Grant Thornton report, which cost €15,000, was, like their auditors report, paid for out of the HSE and Lottery grant. She denied this was an unnecesssary additional expense in the light of the Adoption Board’s inquiry.
The Adoption Board said yesterday it could not comment on its inquiries until they were completed. It said it met with its retained accountants yesterday to be briefed on progress in relation to its review of HHAMA.
Meanwhile, a new inter-country adoption mediation agency has been approved in principle by the Adoption Board.
Arc Adoption, established by members of the Irish Inter-country Adoption Assocation, intends working with at least four countries of origin which have ratified the Hague Convention, or have bilateral adoption agreements with Ireland. The agency cannot be operational until the passing of the Adoption Bill.