Chief Executive Officer of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) Rosalee Gage-Grey could find herself in the firing line on Tuesday when a report on an investigation into the relationship between her agency and Carl Robanske, head of the United States-based organisation Embracing Orphans, is tabled in Parliament.

The investigation was conducted by the Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) following a March 2021 report by Nationwide News Network on the relationship which noted that Robankse, the executive director of Embracing Orphans, had his education certificate suspended in the US after it was established he had sexually inappropriate exchanges with a minor.

In the executive summary of its report, which has been seen by OBSERVER ONLINE, the OCA says that Gage-Grey failed in her administrative and moral duty to these former wards of the State who were based at the transition facility The Father’s House.

”Her responses indicate that she is either unaware of, or has a reckless approach to the significant vulnerability which attaches not only to them when they are minors, (i.e. below 18 years) but also even after and during their transition out of the formal care system,” said the report.

“The CPFSA, by its own admission, knew of Robanske’s antecedents from early 2018. It also knew (despite recent denials) that it had children accommodated at The Father’s House. Its continued partnership with Robanske himself and with Embracing Orphans, given the central and lead role that Robanske plays in that organisation, was not only questionable but betrayed the CPFSA’s mandate and undermined its moral authority to be telling Jamaicans that they should be wary of persons who may be around children for fear that they may abuse them,” added the report.

In its recommendation, the OCA said: “The leadership and management of the CPFSA has demonstrated that it either does not have the capacity or the will to effectively manage sensitive matters in spite of the high level of responsibility that has been entrusted to it in relation to some of Jamaica’s most vulnerable citizens.”

And in a clear indication that Gage-Grey could be in serious trouble, the report concludes: “Due to the CEO’s gross breach of the duty of care owed to wards of the State and former wards who are housed in facilities run by the CPFSA that is a finding of this investigation, this matter is hereby referred to the Honourable Fayval Williams, Minister of Education & Youth, as the person competent to take such disciplinary or other proceedings as may be appropriate against the CEO of the CPFSA”.

See other findings from the OCA’s investigation in the Tuesday Observer.