Charity investigated over ‘unauthorised trustee payments’

27 Sep 2018 News

The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into a community development charity over unauthorised payments to trustees and “breaches of charity law”.

The Moss Side and Hulme Community Development Trust, an Afro-Caribbean charity which runs the Windrush Millennium Centre in Manchester, was previously part of a class inquiry for failing to file its accounts on time.

Its most recent accounts show that the charity has been paying its chair, Hartley Hanley, £20,000 a year to act as chief executive.

A spokesman for the charity told Civil Society News it had “all proper permissions” from the Charity Commission to do so. 

The only other payment to trustees is £181 for travel expenses.

The accounts also show the charity is operating with a deficit in its free reserves, although it has £1.8m of property and other fixed assets.

An inquiry was opened into the charity on 28 August. The regulator said in a statement that the most recent financial information submitted by the charity has “raised further regulatory concerns for the Commission in relation to potential unauthorised payments to a trustee, and other breaches of charity law affecting the management of the charity.”

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