The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Livingstone House Mother of the Harvest Ministries over concerns about misconduct or mismanagement with regards to the administration of the charity
The charity’s object is to rehabilitate people with alcohol and drug addictions. Based in Birmingham, it provides detoxification, primary and secondary care and uses a Christian 12 step programme to encourage sober living.
The Commission placed the charity into a class inquiry in February 2017 because it failed to submit its accounting information on time for the financial years ending 31 December 2014 and 31 December 2015.
The charity, which has an income of around £500,000 annually, complied with the class inquiry and filed the overdue accounting information required.
However, the trustees again defaulted on submitting accounts for the financial year ending 31 December 2016, and the Commission says it has regulatory concerns about the charity’s governance.
Record suggest that there have only been two trustees since January 2016 and one trustee from 27 April 2016 to 16 May 2017. The charity’s governing document states that the number of trustees should not fall below three, therefore raising concerns that trustees may have been acting while inquorate. Furthermore, potential conflicts of interest have been identified which raise concerns about whether connected party transactions have been properly authorised.
The Commission’s inquiry will look at whether the trustees are complying with their legal duties in respect of their administration, governance and management of the charity. It will focus in particular on their compliance with legal obligations for the preparation and filing of their charity’s accounts and other information or returns, as well as the extent to which the trustees ensure that the charity is operating in accordance with the provisions of its governing document.
It will also consider whether there has been any misconduct and/or mismanagement, and whether the trustees have responsibly managed the charity’s resources and financial affairs, in particular with respect to how they have managed conflicts of interest/loyalty in particular in relation to connected party transactions.
Once the inquiry has concluded, the Commission will publish a report detailing the issues raised, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were.
Report by Pat Sweet
