An Evangelical Christian charity based in East London which failed to submit two years’ worth of accounts to the Charity Commission said its continued late filing was the fault of an “independent accountancy firm”.

The Redeemed Evangelical Mission Charity, which lists its charitable objectives as the advancement of the Christian religion and the pursuit of other objectives which the “trustees see fit from time to time”, failed to submit its annual accounts for the financial years ending 31 December 2012 and 2013.

Representatives of the charity were contacted by telephone on 7 January 2015 and told that if the documents were not submitted by 27 January the organisation would be under investigation. On 28 January, the charity became part of a Commission inquiry into late filing charities.

On 8 February, representatives of the charity contacted the regulator and told it that an independent accountancy firm had been commissioned in September 2014 to prepare both sets of missing accounts in time for the January deadline.

Despite promises from the accountancy firm, the deadline passed and no reason for the failure was given to the charity by the accountancy firm, it said. A second accountancy firm was contacted and both sets of missing accounts were submitted on 27 February.

The charity register shows that the Redeemed Evangelical Mission Charity has been late filing every set of accounts since 2009. Its accounts for the year ending 31 December 2011 were filed 676 days late. Its most recent set of accounts show that the registered charity had an income of £359,494 and spending of £370,613. The charity has six trustees and no employees.

Due to the inquiry, over £785,920 worth of charitable income has been made transparent and accountable.

The charity was contacted by Civil Society News but at the time of publication, no-one had responded with a comment.