The Daily Mail has accused the Charity Commission of “squandering” public money on foreign trips but the Commission has said that the budget for such travel does not come out of the regulator's core funding.
Details of spending on corporate credit cards were obtained by the Mail through a Freedom of Information request, and reveal that over two years the Commission spent £38,000 in high-end hotels in places such as Kenya and Qatar. Most of this spend is attributable to the charity’s four-strong international team.
A Charity Commission spokeswoman responded: “The Charity Commission’s International Programme carries out important work with overseas governments, regulators and charitable sectors to support and enhance the effective regulation of charities and not-for-profit sectors in those countries.”
She added: “The funding for this work does not come from Commission core funding.”
Previous funders have included the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Canadian government.
In the last financial year the Commission received a total of £739,000 for the international programme. Most of this came from other UK government departments (£438,000) with £281,000 coming from non-UK sources.
The Mail points out that the Commission’s staff stayed in luxury hotels, including the Ritz Carlton in the Qatari capital Doha.
In response the Commission spokeswoman said: “The venues for such work is not always the choice of the Commission or are chosen after advice from the relevant British High Commission or Embassy and are chosen for security reasons.”
The Commission’s International Programme was launched in 2002 and aims to help civil society organisations and government bodies develop a healthy and accountable NGO sector by sharing best-practice ideas.
The spokeswoman added that: “An example of the valuable work in which the Commission has been involved in recent years is the awareness-raising work carried out by the Centre for Global Counterterrorism Cooperation under the auspices of the United Nations funded by the Canadian government in which the Commission, given its international reputation as a charity regulator, is a leading partner.”
