By Priscilla Oye Ofori
Accra, Sept. 2, GNA — Auditor Generals’ report has shown that lack of collaborated efforts between the Central Adoption Authority (CAA) and the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) is hindering the country’s adoption process.
This has led to the continuous stay of children in Residential Homes for Children (RHCs) that did not provide complete care or live with foster parents who have not been cleared by CAA to become adoptive parents.
It said although the institutions ensured only eligible and suitable applicants were matched with adopted children, the absence of cooperation between them did not guarantee the wellbeing of adopted children.
The report, on the performance on provision of adoption services by the CAA and the DSW, said it also delayed training, monitoring and counselling of adoptive parents and children.
The audit was carried out to determine whether CAA and DSW have put in place measures and ensured that eligible and suitable applicants were matched with children, trained, monitored and counselled for the successful care and protection of children placed in adoption.
According to USAID, at the end of 2016, there were approximately 2,900 Ghanaian children in 95 Residential Homes for Children (RHCs) with approximately 85 per cent of them having at least one living parent.
Therefore, Government in partnership with UNICEF, USAID, and the Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO) OrphanAid Africa, introduced the Care Reform initiatives by the Government of Ghana to establish a more consistent and stable approach to care for vulnerable children in Ghana and an objective to provide alternatives to residential homes, through adoption or foster care.
The Government setup the Central Adoption Authority under the Children’s (Amendment) Act, 2016, (Act 937) to provide for the conduct of all adoptions in the country, ensure better protection for children deprived of parental care and ensuring that adoption takes place in the best interest of the child and with respect for their fundamental rights.
The role of DSW under the Children’s (Amendment) Act, 2016, (Act 937) is to receive adoption applications, conduct Home study on prospective adoptive parents and submit a Home Study Report together with the complete applications to the Central Adoption Authority (CAA).
The report noted that CAA and DSW did not collaborate to ensure that adoption applications were processed within the stipulated time with the former not building capacity of their officers in the adoption processes after the amendment of the Children ‘s Act to equip them with the needed information and skills in adoption.
It stated that the DSW did not plan, budget and develop a training manual, hence, did not train Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) to enable them provide adopted children with the needed care.
The report said post adoption monitoring was also not done on adopted children during the period under review.
‘‘ I have recommended to CAA and DSW to assign timelines to their activities to ensure that they both meet the six-week duration specified by the law, prioritise capacity-building programmes and allocate funds annually for its implementation as well as collaborate with National DSW to plan annual training workshops to build the capacity of its staff across the regions,’’ it said.
The report also suggested the development of a training manual as soon as practicable and subsequently train PAPs whose applications have been cleared to adopt children.
The Auditor Generals Department recommended to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to expedite work on the release of the GHS 102,859.41 by the Ministry of Finance for the operations of the CAA to facilitate adoption services and related issues.
GNA