Without Reasonable Care And Skill
Being a charity trustee isn’t an easy job. And the larger the charity turnover, the more complicated it gets. The Charity Commission guide “The Essential Trustee” describes the legal duties and requirements as:
It’s vital that the charity is run by individuals with a wide range of professional skills and abilities, who keep up to date with the legal requirements, and understand that good quality professional help is essential.
Reporting serious incidents
The Charity Commission requires charities to report serious incidents. A serious incident is an adverse event, whether actual or alleged, which results in or risks significant:
loss of the charity’s money or assets
damage to the charity’s property
harm to the charity’s work, beneficiaries or reputation
The most common type of incidents are frauds, thefts, significant financial losses, criminal breaches, terrorism or extremism allegations, and safeguarding issues.
The recent incident at the club, where a trustee and company director allegedly assaulted a young member of staff, is classed as a serious incident and must be reported by the charity to the Charity Commission.
To restore public confidence in the charity, it’s vital that some kind of public statement is issued, and the trustee involved, is held to account.
In our opinion, this trustee has fallen below the required standard of conduct and behaviour, and brought the charity name into disrepute, and should resign.
If the other trustees fail to act, they may also fall foul of the Charity Commission.
Financial Reporting
Possibly the most complicated legal area of charity stewardship for trustees. All charities with an income of over £5,000 are required to report their accounts to the Charity Commission.
There are further requirements in the levels of reporting set out in the Accounting and reporting by charities: the statement of recommended practice (SORP) 2019
The current SORP became active on 01/01/19, the previous version was dated 2005
Small charities or small entities with an income over £5,000 may just produce simplified self audited accounts to the Charity Commission.
At a gross income of £250,000, charities should have the accounts examined by an appropriately qualified professional.
At a gross income of £1,000,000, the accounts require a statutory audit by an independent qualified professional.
The 2019 accounts (HERE) show a gross income over a million pounds, and should’ve have been subject to a full independent audit.
Overall, the CMS accounts show a lack of transparency in relation to the charity’s activities, future plans, movement of funds and donations made as a part of their charitable activities. All that’s being submitted are just the bare numbers. For a charity with a moderate income and high value assets, that’s not acceptable.
Compare the CMS charity returns to this one from Muslims In Need. In particular look at the detailed reporting of charitable activities.
REPORT YOUR CONCERNS
If any member of the public has any concerns, you should in the first instance email the Chelmsford Muslim Society, then contact the Charity Commission.