Mohit hits back over Children’s Authority finances

So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Van­dana Mo­hit has chal­lenged Op­po­si­tion MP Camille Robin­son-Reg­is to an­swer ques­tions about the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty’s fi­nan­cial man­age­ment, as their dis­pute over the in­sti­tu­tion’s over­sight and treat­ment of chil­dren in State care con­tin­ues.

In a state­ment is­sued on Sun­day, Mo­hit ac­cused Robin­son-Reg­is of mis­rep­re­sent­ing her con­cerns about the Au­thor­i­ty’s fi­nances as an at­tack on the pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fi­ca­tions of its board.

Mo­hit said her con­cerns cen­tred on out­stand­ing li­a­bil­i­ties, fi­nan­cial gov­er­nance and man­age­ment prac­tices at the in­sti­tu­tion.

She said she had spear­head­ed in­ter­ven­tions to set­tle more than $75.5 mil­lion in fi­nan­cial com­mit­ments, in­clud­ing $36 mil­lion in out­stand­ing con­trac­tu­al oblig­a­tions and $17.8 mil­lion in un­remit­ted statu­to­ry oblig­a­tions.

A fur­ther $8.25 mil­lion was paid to­wards out­stand­ing com­mit­ments on Oc­to­ber 15, she said.

“Pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fi­ca­tions are no sub­sti­tute for sound fi­nan­cial man­age­ment, and a statu­to­ry ap­point­ment does not place any­one above pub­lic scruti­ny,” Mo­hit said.

The min­is­ter al­so raised con­cerns about trans­porta­tion ex­pen­di­ture and in­sti­tu­tion­al over­sight, say­ing some mat­ters had been re­ferred to the ap­pro­pri­ate au­thor­i­ties for ex­am­i­na­tion.

She de­fend­ed her lim­it­ed en­gage­ment with the board, say­ing her in­ter­ven­tions had been in writ­ing and that her pri­or­i­ty was to ad­dress out­stand­ing debts, main­tain ser­vices and im­prove ac­count­abil­i­ty.

“I did not cre­ate these long­stand­ing fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions. I in­her­it­ed the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to ad­dress them, and that is pre­cise­ly what I have been do­ing,” she said.

The lat­est ex­change fol­lows a dis­pute in Par­lia­ment dur­ing the 2026-2027 Bud­get De­bate, when Robin­son-Reg­is ques­tioned the Gov­ern­ment’s over­sight of the Au­thor­i­ty, its fund­ing and the han­dling of chil­dren in State care.

Robin­son-Reg­is al­so al­leged that Mo­hit had failed to act on con­cerns about racial­ly charged re­marks at a res­i­den­tial chil­dren’s home. Mo­hit de­nied the al­le­ga­tion, call­ing it un­true.

The min­is­ter al­so ac­cused the Au­thor­i­ty’s board of un­der­min­ing the Gov­ern­ment and raised con­cerns about its fi­nan­cial and op­er­a­tional prac­tices.

In a state­ment fol­low­ing the de­bate, Robin­son-Reg­is de­fend­ed the board’s pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fi­ca­tions and ques­tioned Mo­hit’s ap­proach to its over­sight.

Mo­hit said she would con­tin­ue to de­fend pub­lic funds and the wel­fare of chil­dren in State care.