Country: Delta

3.2.1 The situation

Delta, having witnessed the problems in Alpha and other countries, established the following processing procedures:

• Regional Offices to accept applications for assistance from families in need, declare a child adoptable, determine if placement for national adoption was available and declare a child available for intercountry adoption;

• abandoned children were subject to investigation to determine circumstances;

• Regional Offices assigned the children to orphanages randomly;

• family preservation efforts were available through, and paid for by, the Regional Offices from State funds;

• accredited bodies were asked to support directly the functioning of specific orphanages;

• once a child was matched with an adopting family abroad, the adoption was approved by Delta’s Central Authority, which reviewed the documentation provided by the region and issued the certificate of conformity.

The establishment of the Regional Offices enabled the regions to refer families to resources available to them to assist in keeping their families intact. If a child was found abandoned, either at a hospital, police station or at an institution, the office would initiate a search for the child’s family to see if preservation programmes could be utilised. If the family was found and could not be assisted in remaining intact, the office would be able to obtain the consents to the adoption.

The State made funds available for family preservation efforts, which provided added protections against the unnecessary relinquishment of children. In addition, the fact that children needing temporary care were assigned to an orphanage or other facility by the Regional office was intended to eliminate the risk that individual orphanages would solicit children for adoption.

Accredited bodies were specifically asked to provide support to individual orphanages and perform family preservation services in exchange for the privilege to conduct adoptions. They typically agreed, provided that they were allowed to form exclusive arrangements with the orphanages, barring other organisations from also providing services. Accredited bodies were only allowed to distribute information about available children to their overseas partners

after a child was declared adoptable.

If a region declared the child adoptable, it would review applications for adoption from local adopting families to see if the child could be adopted locally. If not, the child would become available for intercountry adoption.

Even with the addition of safeguards, Delta began experiencing problems in its adoption system. Following allegations of impropriety, a review of its operation revealed the following problems:

• investigations into abandonments were often perfunctory;

• officials were accepting “expediting fees” to process paperwork for particular children and / or orphanages;

• lawyers were paying families to abandon children anonymously;

• children were being abducted for adoption.

Virtually all the problems in Delta were traced to one source: the Regional Offices responsible for performing the duties of family preservation and adoptability were seriously underfunded and understaffed.

3.2.2 The problems

The Regional Offices were burdened by a lack of resources and a lack of staff. Due to such constraints, investigations to locate birth families of abandoned children were often perfunctory. The lack of resources in the Regional Offices also often led to long delays in having children declared adoptable, in providing documentary evidence of family preservation efforts, and in efforts to find national adoptive families.

As the Regional Office was solely responsible for these functions, they were susceptible to pressure from accredited bodies who had large numbers of children in their care. In general, the pressure resulted in the lack of adequate investigation, perfunctory family preservation efforts, limited national adoption efforts and an emphasis on simply providing the paperwork trail needed to document that these steps had occurred, rather than on the quality of each step.

In frustration that these steps were taking so long, some accredited bodies offered the Regional Offices “expediting fees” to move paperwork along faster. Rather than establishing a formal, transparent system for such fees, they were paid “under the table” and the amounts remained obscure. In addition, paperwork for those who refused to pay such fees stopped progressing at all - creating a system where such fees were actually required rather than possible. In time, such fees were also used to persuade officials to refer certain children to specific orphanages.

This atmosphere, unchecked, led to other difficulties. Realising that investigations were perfunctory, especially if the time frame to acquire paperwork showing it had been completed was significantly shortened through “expediting fees”, certain accredited bodies began again to use local agents to find children from families who were willing to abandon anonymously the child in exchange for payment.

In some cases, it was discovered that an abduction ring had been formed around the country to bring children to specific regions for “abandonment”. Families of origin who were seeking missing children had few resources and no central office which investigated alleged abductions, and were thus often unable to locate the child before adoption paperwork was processed.

3.2.3 Possible solutions

3.2.3.1 Adequate resources

The solution that would eliminate the problems experienced by Delta is adequate funding of the Regional Offices, coupled with strong oversight from the Central Authority. A well-funded office would not be as susceptible to monetary pressures from accredited bodies. However, even if the office were well-funded, placing so much responsibility on one office often leads to considerable pressure from local entities. Therefore, States may wish to consider separating the duties between several offices, or requiring independent monitoring of the system by outside entities.

3.2.3.2 Fee policies

The problem of “expediting fees” is a common one around the world. At times, the system develops because of the pressure from entities to process paperwork faster. In some cases this system may merely be a reflection of the normal way of doing business in a particular country. It should be noted, however, that even if this practice is accepted in other industries, its use in relation to adoption can result in the failure of the State to meet its Convention obligations regarding subsidiarity and the best interests of the child.

Expediting fees for the actual processing of official paperwork may occur in a manner which is both legal and acceptable to most countries. For example, some countries allow higher fees to be paid to “fast-track” applications for a passport or other official document. However, those fees are transparent, and they are paid to the office itself and not to individual persons. In addition, the rate for such services is clearly posted and official receipts are offered. If employees are required to work additional hours to process expedited requests, they are paid established extra wages. The establishment of such a transparent system may help to eliminate abuses in this regard, particularly when a transparent system is coupled with civil or criminal penalties for misconduct on behalf of officials or those attempting to improperly influence official decisions.

3.2.3.3 Abduction

As noted in Chapter 6.1 of this Guide, a large number of abandonments can signal the possibility of abductions that are occurring for the purposes of adoption. Safeguards against these practices generally include adequate investigations of abandoned children. States may also want to consider whether the collection and analysis of statistical information from each province can be used as a safeguard against this and other activities. A review of such information by the Central Authority may show a pattern of abandonments in one particular area, or to one particular orphanage. Further, States may wish to ensure that local or regional authorities have a systematic way to investigate reports of abduction.