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Late account filing damages public trust, says Younger

Finance | Jonathan Last | 16 Oct 2012

Charity Commission chief executive Sam Younger said yesterday that charities failing to file their accounts on time face the risk of shattering public trust – in both themselves and the sector as a whole.

Younger expanded on recently revealed figures derived by the Commission’s accounts team that found that 4,600 charities were filing more than 30 days late.

“[In addition to this] there is a group of 260 that each turn over more than £500,000 per year who have filed late,” he told an audience of over 300 charity representatives and investment professionals at the Charity Finance Summit.

“Of those charities with income of over £250,000 who were late filing, 25 per cent of them had been late for every one of the past five years.

“It’s not just a matter of compliance, it’s also the matter of the importance of good, accurate information, so that the public continues to support charities.

“In our public trust report in the summer, 96 per cent of those we surveyed said that knowing where the money is going was very important to them.”

He also described the Commission’s website as a “shop window”, where information is available for anyone to appraise – including grant-giving bodies.

Younger commented that many of the late-submitting charities had been on time providing their accounts to Companies House, and speculated that this may be related to the penalty that filing late to Companies House incurs. He reiterated earlier warnings that the Commission may implement either the withdrawal of gift aid, as per Lord Hodgson's report, or a fining system of its own.

The Charity Commission CEO also used his speech as an opportunity to reiterate his view that fraud is one of the biggest concerns in the sector. In 2011/12, 18 of the Commission’s 85 completed investigations concerned the issue, with more than 300 of just over 1,000 serious incidents charities reported to the regulator involving fraud in some way. The loss to the sector is estimated at £1.1bn.

Finally, Younger exhorted those delegates who were already trustees to encourage others within their networks to become trustees, and urged those who were not already trsutees to hurry up and become one.

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