The London-based charity has an annual income of around £200,000 and operates in Brazil, India, Jordan, Sri Lanka and Uganda, working with individuals, schools and businesses to help achieve the millennium development goals, specifically poverty alleviation.

In early 2017 the charity was included in a class inquiry which the Commission opened to examine charities that had repeatedly defaulted on their accounting obligations.

The charity submitted the outstanding documents to the Commission in April 2017 and, as a result, ceased to be a part of the class inquiry. However, despite receiving regulatory advice and being reminded to meet their legal duties, the trustees again failed to file the statutory accounting information on time for the financial year ending 31 December 2016.

This failure has prompted a new inquiry, which will seek to ensure that the trustees comply with their legal duties to file future account submissions within the statutory deadlines and examine broader aspects of the charity’s administration and management to ensure it is being properly managed by the trustees.

The Commission is reminding charity trustees that if their charity’s gross income exceeds £25,000, they have a legal obligation to submit a copy of their annual report and accounts to the Commission within 10 months of the charity’s financial year end. Failure to do this is a criminal offence under section 173(1) of the Charities Act 2011.

Once the inquiry into The Great Generation is complete, the Commission will publish a report detailing what issues it looked at, and what the outcomes were.

Report by Pat Sweet