Welsh government to investigate alleged abuse of charitable funds 2

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 20 Jan 2012

The Welsh government has launched an investigation into the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association (Awema), which is mired in a trustee row over alleged misuse of charity funds by its chief executive.

Vice-chair of the charity Dr Sibani Roy has resigned in protest at the refusal of Awema’s chief executive Naz Malik to step down following an inquiry report commissioned by some of the trustees, which found instances of serious abuse of funds and other misconduct within the organisation.

The inquiry was conducted by Paul Dunn, an independent investigator who is also a retired charity chief executive.

Dr Roy told civilsociety.co.uk that she had a total lack of confidence in both the chief executive and the newly-elected chair, Rita Austin, to carry forward the work of Awema.

The inquiry report, seen by civilsociety.co.uk, lists a number of allegations of misconduct against chief executive Malik.

These include extracting Awema funds for personal use; making inappropriate sexual remarks; bullying staff and causing a conflict of interest by hiring his daughter.

According to walesonline.co.uk, Malik admitted paying off a personal credit card debt of more than £9,000 with Awema money, but claimed he regarded the money as an advance on future expenses.

Dr Roy added that since her departure from the board, a further six trustees have resigned, and the financial director of Awema who blew the whistle on the irregularities at the charity, has been suspended from his job.

She has also provided a copy of the report to South Wales Police.

Civilsociety.co.uk invited Naz Malik to give his side of the story but he declined to comment.

Welsh government investigating

The Welsh government has announced that it will lead its own investigation into the charity as it has been awarded £8.4m in public money.

Awema is currently managing three projects under the European aid programme for West Wales and Valleys. The projects aim to improve the employment prospects for ethnic minorities.

Asked about the investigation on Tuesday, during questions in the Welsh Assembly, Assembly Member Jane Hutt said: "I assure Members that the Welsh government, including the Welsh European Funding Office, are co-ordinating an investigation, along with the Big Lottery Fund. It is also important to recognise that Welsh government officials have been liaising with South Wales Police regarding the allegations."

The Charity Commission is also assessing the situation.

A Charity Commission spokeswoman said: "The Charity Commission has received a serious incident report from the trustees of the charity the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association.

"We are currently assessing information around that report to determine what, if any, regulatory role there might be for the Commission.

"Please note that this does not mean we are investigating the charity."

Place a comment

Mick Pickard
24 Jan 2012

“I was initially shocked and surprised.. Shocked that after his own admissions, the disciplinary panel of AWEMA had regarded that the imposition of a written warning, an oral warning and words of advice was an adequate response to the appalling litany of charges that had been laid against him.

I was surprised, that the CEO of an organisation that is dealing with in excess of 8 Million pounds of public funds could possibly leave himself open to such allegations. Was he ignorant of HMRC rules, surely, in his position he must be aware of them, but it appears he just “confirmed that he hadn’t thought about HMRC regulations concerning ‘loans’ and the taxation of benefits. He accepted that he didn’t get it right.”

In regards, to the claims of nepotism against him, surely he must have realised that what is acceptable in a family business is certainly not in an organisation of the stature of AWEMA. An organisation which is quite rightly open to public scrutiny and the close examination by funding bodies into compliance with their rules regarding the issue and awarding of grant funding.

A question that does not seem to have been raised as yet is what will be the roll on effect for other organisations, AWEMA is lead partner with organisations and manages funds for them, so what happen to them if funding to AWEMA is withdrawn. In this respect how many people will lose jobs, how many people will fail to obtain jobs. The actions of the AWEMA CEO are damaging not only to his own organisation but also many others that are associated with AWEMA and sadly the response by the AWEMA Chairman and disciplinary panel does nothing to restore confidence in this organisation.”

[Reply]

Elaine Clayton
Chief Executive
VALREC
20 Jan 2012

AWEMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Reply]

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