The Kids Company web of intrigue is slowly being untangled. A report from the National Audit Office reveals that despite repeated warnings from civil servants, £46 million was given to the charity over 15 years – from the Department for Education, local councils and lottery funds. It appears there was little auditing of where these funds were being used, instead relying on Kids Company’s self assessments. The money used to prop up the charity had an impact elsewhere: in 2008, it received 20 per cent of all the grant funding available from the DfE – leaving the rest to be split among 42 other charities. And in 2011, Kids Company received more than twice the amount than any other charity.
Although the sums are huge, it was the ignored warnings that are the most troubling. The NAO ‘observed a consistent pattern of behaviour each time Kids Company approached the end of a grant term’ – its charismatic founder Camila Batmanghelidjh would issue warnings about its future, threaten to write to ministers and strong arm the civil service into handing over more money.
Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, is not at all impressed at what has gone on:
‘It is unbelievable that over 13 years, taxpayers’ money has been given to Kids Company with little focus on what it was actually achieving for the children it was supporting.
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