Apostolic Faith Mission International Ministries UK is under statutory inquiry with the Charity Commission for persistent late filing of accounts, just 12 weeks after having been removed from the regulator’s class inquiry for the same reason.
The Charity Commission has told the trustees of the Leicester-based charity the Apostolic Faith Mission International Ministries UK that they must prepare financial documents for the year to 31 March 2013, which were due by the end of January, before 6 March.
The Commission has warned that it could appoint an interim manager to run the charity, possibly at the personal expense of its trustees, if the filing deadline is not met.
In November, the organisation was removed from the Charity Commission’s class inquiry into repeated late filers.
In a Charity Commission inquiry report at them time it said the organisation was at "at an advanced stage of decentralisation". The charity explained its failure to file its accounts as related to problems with management “due to a centralised structure, whereby a people accountable are far from the activities”. It told the Commission that reminders from the Commission had not been passed on to the right people.
Most churches have now been registered as a separate charities. Branches have been registered in Leeds, Doncaster, South East London and Manchester, according to the Commission's website.
For the past three years, the Apostolic Faith Mission International Ministries, has got the bulk of its income from what it describes as "love offering" and tithes. It spends a largest proportion of its income on what it calls "spiritual leader costs", a range of expenditure on the charity’s pastor, including mobile phone expenses, hospitality and council tax.
In its latest accounts filed with the Charity Commission for the year ending 31 March 2012 it records an income of £560,864. It got the bulk of this from ‘love offering’ (£121,162) and tithes (£329,153). It spent the largest proportion of its income on “spiritual leader costs” (£259,523).
