A company looking after vulnerable children in State care was found to have supplied a “significant number” of forged Garda criminal background checks, falsely clearing some of its staff to work with minors.
An investigation by The Irish Times, based on internal reports, emails, court records and other documentation, has established the Co Meath company, Good People Homecare Ltd, housed children in overcrowded, “unsuitable” conditions and submitted falsified Garda vetting clearances of its care staff.
The company is run by evangelical pastor Gerard Chimbganda (50), who has a number of businesses in Ireland.
His firms provide home care to older people on behalf of the health service, accommodation for Ukrainian refugees, and until last year, he ran emergency housing for children in State care.
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Tusla, the child and family agency, had turned to Good People and several other private companies, to help stem a crisis in the care system.
In recent years, hundreds of children have had to be placed into unregulated emergency housing run by private companies, because Tusla is facing a shortage of foster carers and has no spare beds in group care homes.
These emergency placements usually involve children being put into a rented house or apartment, where care staff from the private companies are on site 24/7.
The arrangements have been widely criticised by judges and civil society organisations as inappropriate. Tusla contracted Good People to run a number of these emergency placements since 2022.
Internal emails show Tusla officials noticed something concerning in late 2023. There seemed to be issues with Garda vetting paperwork supplied by Good People, clearing its care staff to work with children.
A November 2023 email from Tusla to gardaí said internal checks were flagging problems with some documentation supplied by the company. “We have concerns that a large number of these are possible fraudulent [National Vetting Bureau] vetting disclosures,” a Tusla official told gardaí.
The State agency passed on 22 cases where they had “serious concerns” about the background checks being fake, meaning unvetted staff were caring for vulnerable children. They uncovered more suspected cases of vetting being falsified in the days after.
In correspondence the next month, Tusla said Good People had submitted “fraudulent Garda vetting” for some staff, and then later resubmitted batches of paperwork that included legitimate vetting clearance for some individuals.
Gardaí launched a criminal inquiry. Tusla officials provided statements and other evidence to investigators.
The discovery that fake vetting clearances had been provided for care staff sparked serious alarm inside Tusla.
[ Tusla expects to be €68m over budget this year as demand for services risesOpens in new window ]
Clare Murphy, then-director of services, issued an order that no more children were to be placed into accommodation run by Good People.
Extra oversight was required for those already in the care of the company, until they were moved elsewhere.
By February 2024, there were no children still living in emergency placements staffed by Good People.
The company is owned by Mr Chimbganda, his wife Sibonile Chimbganda, who is also the finance director of the firm, and his sister, Taridzai Kadonzvo, the human resources director.
Company records show Mr Chimbganda, who is originally from Zimbabwe, first got into business in the Republic in the mid-2000s, starting a firm sourcing agency staff for the health service.
His business operations have increased significantly in recent years on the back of work for Tusla and other State bodies. Tusla paid Good People €8.1 million between 2022 and 2024, to house children in emergency accommodation.
Financial filings show Good People Homecare had assets of €4.3 million in 2023, while another firm owned by Mr Chimbganda and his wife, Minana International Limited, reported €4.2 million in assets.
Documentation shows concerns had previously been raised about standards in its accommodation.
Internal Tusla inspections in 2023 found children were living in crowded conditions in “unsuitable” properties, and Good People were failing to report serious incidents to social workers, such as young people going missing from their care.
Many of the children in these homes were underage asylum seekers or Ukrainian refugees, who had arrived in the Republic as teenagers without their parents, and so were taken into the care system.
Inspection reports, obtained by The Irish Times following Freedom of Information Act requests, said rats had been found in one apartment Good People were using to house children.
Teens living in the home told Tusla inspectors that there was no soap or shampoo to clean themselves at times and that the property was often dirty. One told inspectors they had witnessed staff threatening to “report” any new arrivals who complained about conditions.
An inspection of another Good People property identified “immediate safeguarding issues”, including Tusla social workers not being told about serious incidents.
Young people were not receiving “any therapeutic intervention”, despite many having survived past traumas, the inspection said.
Due to a lack of space Good People workers used a small cloak room for one-to-one conversations with young people, which Tusla inspectors said was not appropriate.
In another property, Tusla said young people were sleeping in bunk beds in shared rooms. The kitchen was so small that children were seen eating their lunch standing up, the inspection report said.
While not directly commenting on Good People, one former Tusla official said there was a general unease inside the agency about standards of care in emergency accommodation managed by private companies.
Some seemed to have “no track record” working with vulnerable children, and staff lacked proper qualifications, the source said.
A source inside Tusla said there was huge pressure to reduce the number of children living in these “special emergency arrangements”, and move them into regulated settings, such as foster care, or official group homes either run directly by Tusla, or private providers who had established themselves in the care system.
Wayne Stanley, chief executive of Epic, an organisation which advocates for children in care, said part of the problem was State underfunding of Tusla.
This meant the agency was relying on “stopgap” emergency placements, rather than opening more regulated group care homes itself, he said.
The Garda investigation into the falsification of vetting records at Good People concluded this year with a conviction, the details of which have not been reported publicly before.
One of Good People’s employees, who is understood to be a younger relative of Mr Chimbganda, was charged with 55 counts of forgery and 55 counts of falsification of vetting disclosures, according to court papers seen by The Irish Times.
A March 5th email from gardaí to Tusla said the accused had “offered a guilty plea in respect of all 55 false vetting disclosures”.
The woman, who is now 22-years-old, was employed by Good People as an administrative assistant and shift coordinator, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The former employee was convicted in Trim Circuit Court on May 30th and given an 18 month suspended sentence, according to court records.
In a statement, Mr Chimbganda said the case concerned a “former junior employee, who acted entirely alone,” without the knowledge of management.
“Upon discovery, Good People fully co-operated with the authorities, her employment was terminated, and she has never been re-engaged,” he said. “No director or member of senior management engaged in any wrongdoing,” he said.
“Swift corrective action was taken, and the company strengthened its vetting and compliance systems,” his statement said.
All care staff hold valid Garda vetting clearance, he said. “We maintain a live compliance tracker, reviewed monthly, to ensure full adherence,″ he said.
Kate Duggan, chief executive of Tusla, said the safety of children in State care was its top priority. “This case demonstrates our commitment to strong governance and our willingness to act swiftly when concerns arise,” she said.
“Tusla will not tolerate serious breaches of standards by any company providing services, and we take swift and decisive action where serious concerns arise,” a spokeswoman for the agency added.
Evidence provided by Tusla had played a “critical part” in the Garda prosecution, she said.
The Department of Children confirmed Tusla had uncovered “a significant number of suspected fraudulent Garda Vetting disclosures” supplied by Good People.
Officials immediately referred these to gardaí, “who confirmed that these vettings were not valid,” a department spokeswoman said.
“Tusla ceased using this company in February 2024. Tusla notified the Department of this issue in April 2024,” she said.
However, despite Tusla cutting ties with Good People Homecare Ltd early last year, another of the group’s companies continues to provide accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.
Minana International, which also trades under the name Good People, and shares the same directors, owners, and company address, has been paid hundreds of thousands of euros a year by the department.
The department, which at the time was also responsible for asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees, contracted Minana International to provide housing for Ukrainian families in a 15-bed property in Co Wicklow. Records show the firm has been paid at least €1.3 million by the department since late 2022.
[ Children’s ombudsman stopped visiting asylum seekers due to budget cutsOpens in new window ]
Department officials went on to award that company a further State contract late last year, worth an estimated €6 million, to carry out “vulnerability assessments” of asylum seekers arriving into the country.
“The evaluation committee was not aware of any allegations of fraud or noncompliance with relevant legislation by Good People when the recommendation to award the [contract] was made,” a department spokesman said.
The Department of Justice, who took over responsibility for integration and asylum policy this May, said Minana International were still providing accommodation for Ukrainian refugees in Co Wicklow.
Good People Homecare Ltd also provides home care services to older people in Co Meath, on behalf of the Health Service Executive (HSE).
A spokeswoman for the HSE Dublin and North East area said it was assured Good People were in compliance with strict recruitment and governance standards, including Garda vetting.
After losing some of its lucrative work in the Republic, when Tusla stopped relying on the company, Good People sought to expand its services in Northern Ireland.
Mr Chimbganda is trying to open a residential care home for people with intellectual disabilities in Markethill, Co Armagh. The building, Hebron House, was previously a 21-bed care and respite facility that shut several years ago.
The Southern Trust, who oversees health services in the region, said it had received “an expression of interest”, though no formal discussions had started.
Separate from his business, Mr Chimbganda is an evangelical pastor in Praise Tabernacle AFM, an international Pentecostal church in north inner-city Dublin.
He previously said there was a “strict separation” between religious practices and care provided by Good People, while noting its services are “guided by the teachings of Jesus Christ”.
Mr Chimbganda is listed as one of 250 pastors who signed an open letter criticising planned reforms of sex education in schools.
The 2023 letter to then-minister for education Norma Foley hit out at secondary school students being taught about “transgender ideology”, which it said was “both unbiblical and unscientific”.
Mr Chimbganda said he did not consent to being listed as a signatory and the letter did not reflect his beliefs. However, correspondence on WhatsApp between himself and one of the authors shows Mr Chimbganda confirming he had signed the letter.
