Scandals about the award of public money to charities by way
of grants or contracts and companies through contracts are hardly new. Ancient
Rome was rocked by scandals about the contractors to the state. But a recent
case raises some major and fresh issues about how these arrangements should be
governed. The press has devoted acres of print to the collapse in 2015 of the
children's charity, Kids Company, led by the charismatic figure of Ms Camila
Batmanghelidjh, which had reportedly been awarded central government grants
over a period of more than a decade, despite government officials' concerns and
sometimes as a result of ministerial insistence. Several inquiries have been
instituted. We are still waiting for the result of one by the Charity
Commission into the way in which the charity was run and regulated, of one by
the Official Receiver into the manner in which the charity finally went bust,
and for the result of police investigations into abuse of children by some
people allegedly connected with the charity. But now finally we have a
fascinating, largely factual report carefully written without recommendations,
by the National Audit Office (NAO), which is the body responsible for checking
the propriety and value for money of government spending.
The NAO wasn't asked or expected to find new evidence about whether Kids
Company was effective or even cost-effective in the work it did with vulnerable
children. Rather, its task was to look at what government departments did with
the information they possessed about Kids Company, in making decisions about
whether or not to award new grants and contracts.
