The government recovered nearly £900,000 last year from the liquidation of Kids Company’s assets, seven years after the charity was wound up.
The figure is revealed in the 2021/22 accounts for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which were published today.
Kids Company, which received £46m in public funding over 20 years, closed abruptly in 2015 following a series of allegations about safeguarding and financial mismanagement.
The government funding included a £3m grant paid to the charity days before it shut, against the advice of the most senior civil servants at the Cabinet Office.
Camila Batmanghelidjh, the charity’s founder and chief executive, has always denied claims of mismanagement at the charity, as have its trustees.
Kids Company’s former board members defeated government efforts to disqualify them from holding senior roles at other charities in the future.
A Charity Commission report published in February criticised Kids Company for operating a “high-risk business model”, saying that the charity had relied too heavily on grants and donations while failing to build up financial reserves.
Third Sector reported earlier this year that Batmanghelidjh had started legal action against the regulator to challenge its findings.
Kids Company received grants from several Whitehall departments between 1997 and 2015. The DCMS accounts say that its officials have overseen attempts to recover any money owed to the government after the charity’s collapse.
The report says: “During 2021/22, £883,000 was received and paid over to the Consolidated Fund [the government’s bank account] from the Official Receiver and liquidator for monies owed following the wind-up of the charity.”
This is the first time DCMS annual accounts have included money recovered from the liquidation of Kids Company’s assets. It is not known whether the government expects further payments in the future.
The department was approached for comment this afternoon.