Exposed: How an NGO profited from child neglect

When Ken Amoah established a child-welfare organization eight years ago, he sought to rescue child laborers from a life toiling in the streets. The foster home, which is located in the New Achimota section of Accra, was set up to provide needy children with a place to live, an education – and a respite from work.

Amoah has delivered on some of his goals, yet his prime donors – an arm of the Danish government called Danish International Development Assistance – are wondering whether he – and not neglected children — is the main beneficiary of his Accra-based organization, Children In Need Ghana.

The Danish agency, which goes by the acronym DANIDA, alleged in an interview with The Chronicle on Aug. 15, this year, that Amoah used monies meant for the benefit of the children to buy a vehicle for himself and to build a private home for himself.

Susan Yemidi, the DANIDA officer in charge of the funding for the child programme, says that Amoah has not been able to account for 50,000 US dollars that DANIDA gave him for his organization. DANIDA no longer gives money to Amoah’s child organization.

Amoah spoke with The Chronicle on two occasions regarding his child welfare programme, but he didn’t answer any questions about DANIDA’s allegations. In an interview, Amoah, who describes himself as a trained school worker, spoke passionately about his work with child laborers and the challenges he faces in providing for them.

During visits to the New Achimota foster home, Chronicle met with six of the 19 children staying there. Under the care of only a cook and one other staff member, the children ate only a meal of porridge in the morning, and rice in the evening.

The boys named football as their favorite sport, but said their football had broken two weeks before and had not been replaced. Books donated to the children sit locked in an upstairs room, with staff members claiming some of the boys had stolen books and sold them. The children said nothing had been planned for them during their school vacation.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Amoah says he realizes the home has shortcomings. He blames a lack of money for these shortcomings and says that child-welfare programmes, such as his own, “deserve stable funding.”

When contacted by The Chronicle, the Serious Fraud Office, an agency of the Government of Ghana, confirmed that it had investigated Amoah at the request of the Danish NGO. A. Tetteh Mensah, Assistant Director of Investigations, declined to release a report on his agency’s investigation but said the investigation was completed.