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Expenses group must be above reproach

Finance | Tania Mason | 14 Oct 2009

So Professor Paul Palmer, a member of the “independent” expert group that will issue guidance to charities on how they should report their expenses, also sits on the board of a company that stands to profit from sales of a new software tool that helps charities report their expenses.

And he doesn’t think there is anything wrong in this, because he told the other members of the board of Charity Business that he couldn’t discuss with them anything about his work with the expenses group. Because he declared his conflict of interest at the outset, there is nothing wrong with him holding down both posts, he contends.

I disagree. It just doesn’t smell right.  The marketing puff about Expense Solution on the Charity Business website makes overt references to the forthcoming guidance that Professor Palmer will help to write. References such as: “It has the ability to provide you with the level of reporting that might be needed when the consultation on charity expenses is completed in November” and: “Ensure you are fully compliant with the new disclosure requirements that might come out of the consultation”.

While there is no suggestion that Professor Palmer has deliberately tried to hide the truth about his dual roles, his position on an “independent” expert group becomes untenable if he has a financial interest in a company that is trying to profit from the guidance he will help to create.

The whole reason the expenses issue is on the table at all is because a whole lot of people in powerful positions, members of parliament no less, were found to be lining their pockets with cash that the public deemed they had acquired in an immoral way. The sector’s efforts to pre-empt and avoid any similar charges is to be applauded, and must not be allowed to be tainted by any hint of impropriety.  Professor Palmer must either resign his membership of the Charity Business board while he serves on the expenses group, or step down from the expenses group altogether.

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Who's Who: Tania Mason