MPs blast a £40million handout to Kids Company, without proper checks
MPs have slammed decisions to hand more than £40million to charity Kids Company without proper checks on how the money was spent.
MPs blast £40 million handout to Kids Comapny
And a House of Commons committee that investigated the scandal hit out, saying: “This must never happen again.”
Because ministers in successive governments treated the London based organisation as a “special case” for funding, vulnerable children around the country probably missed out on help.
The Government still did not know what taxpayers’ cash averaging £4million a year had delivered and should now review how it supports charities, a Public Accounts Committee report published today concluded.
The Government still did not know what taxpayers’ cash averaging £4million a year had delivered
The charity was passed around Whitehall like a hot potato, with no one willing to call time on spending millions of tax pounds for uncertain outcomes
KidsCo folded in August, a week after Cabinet Office ministers Matt Hancock and Oliver Letwin overruled civil servants and approved a £3million grant even though it had received £4.3million to keep it afloat in March.
The collapse unleashed criticism over how finances were run and whether it helped as many children as claimed.
Governments and prime ministers are accused of being spellbound by KidsCo’s charismatic chief Camila Batmanghelidjh who founded the organisation in 1996 to support disadvantaged London youngsters.
The PM has a personal involvement with kids Company
Today’s report follows findings by the National Audit Office that KidsCo received at least £46million in public money, including £42million from government and the rest from councils and the National Lottery, since at least 2000.
Committee chairman Meg Hillier, a Labour MP, said: “The charity was passed around Whitehall like a hot potato, with no one willing to call time on spending millions of tax pounds for uncertain outcomes.”
David Cameron’s personal involvement with Kid’s Company led a political insider to claim the Prime Minister was ‘mesmerised’ by Ms Batmanghelidjh and that her charity was considered a “good news story” for the Tory party.