Madonna’s adoption of baby David from Malawi has hit another legal snag after a government official from the country was refused permission to travel to Britain to carry out the essential “home-study” component.

The “dreaded” home-study review has to be carried out to ensure that Madonna and Guy Ritchie are suitable parents, and can provide a suitable home, for the adopted child but the government official charged with carrying out the assessment has been accused of taking money and obtaining a flight tickets from Madonna without the government’s approval.

Penstone Kilembe, who works for the country’s Ministry of Women and Child Development and has been involved with the adoption of David Banda from the start, has been removed from the case after the claims were made as his neutrality may have been compromised.

Kate Kainja, the government Minister in charge of the department, said regarding the case: “We have already contacted Madonna that someone else and not Kilembe will come to assess her, because we feel Mr Kilembe personalised the whole issue when other people can go.”

Madonna was given temporary custody of David, now 23-months old, last November and the child has been living with the star at her family home in London ever since. However, an alliance of children’s rights groups in the country have tried to stop the final adoption, claiming Madonna paid off the government to speed up the procedure and bypass certain criteria.

With his removal from the case, Kilembe has said the alliance may get their way: “What this means is that the whole adoption process may crumble and David is sent back to his village.”