Irish agency in charge of organising adoptions from Vietnam ordered not to facilitate more until it explains why PAPs are charged so much.
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From: kippa on 12 Oct 2009 10:04 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6869489.ece From The Sunday Times October 11, 2009 Vietnamese adoptions put on hold Mark Tighe The Irish agency in charge of organising adoptions from Vietnam has been ordered not to facilitate any more until it explains why the prospective parents are charged so much. Helping Hands, which has offices in Cork and Hanoi, charges would-be adopters $11,100 (7,525) to mediate in Vietnamese adoptions. It has been criticised by a draft UNICEF/International Social Services (ISS) report for its disturbing and misleading breakdown of costs. Last week the state-run Adoption Board wrote to the agency asking it to justify a $1,000 rise in its fees last year. The bulk of the money, $9,000, goes on humanitarian aid but the total of $11,100 is more than is charged by agencies working for any country in the EU. The board has received information on the costs of transport, translation and health screening services in Vietnam from the Irish embassy in Hanoi. It has asked Helping Hands to explain why its administrative fees are in excess of normal Vietnamese rates for these services. In an interview in the Irish Times last week Sharon ODriscoll, chief executive at Helping Hands, said the agency was accountable for the administrative charge of $1,903. We can account for that down to the last cent, said ODriscoll. This weekend Helping Hands, which has had 1.6m in funding from the Health Service Executive (HSE), did not respond to queries asking for a breakdown of the $1,903 charge or an explanation of how it arrived at its prices. A health source said the discrepancy between the Cork agencys fees and the price of Vietnamese services was worrying. John Collins, the Adoption Boards chief executive, confirmed it had written to Helping Hands but said the board was only being prudent. This is following on from media interest, said Collins. We have to check there is nothing we have missed. We need a report to confirm what weve known in the past. ODriscoll resigned as a member of the Adoption Board after taking up her role in Helping Hands in 2006. Health sources say there are tensions among members of the Adoption Board between those who support ODriscoll and those who are concerned that Helping Hands has not been subject to enough scrutiny. Vietnam accounted for 182 of the 397 international adoptions in Ireland last year. There are 350 couples whose plans to adopt from the country have been on hold since a bilateral agreement between the countries lapsed last May. Collins, Geoffrey Shannon, the chairman of the board, Kiernan Gildea, its registrar, and its principal social worker travelled to Vietnam yesterday to establish a system to deal with 20 adoptions the Vietnamese have agreed to allow. Barry Andrews, the minister for children, secured Vietnamese permission for the 20 adoptions, which were at an advanced stage, during a visit to the country earlier this year. The files for the cases are in Helping Handss Hanoi office. A statement from the Adoption Board said Helping Hands remains a registered adoption society but its mediation service no longer applied since the agreement with Vietnam lapsed earlier this year. Collins said the main purpose of the trip to Vietnam was to assess whether a legal framework was in place to process the 20 adoptions so they could be entered on the register of adoptions in Ireland. Shane Clarke, a spokesman for the Vietnamese Irish Network of Adoptive Families, said he was not aware of any complaints about the fees charged by Helping Hands. Id heard that the transport costs were being questioned but that comes from left of field, said Clarke. The costs are a matter to be examined but Ive always thought Helping Hands dealt with it well. People complain about waiting times but the costs havent been an issue. |