The Charity Commission has announced that it has opened an investigation into a Christian charity after almost £300,000 of its funds may have been “unaccounted for”.
It engaged with the Edmund Kell Unitarian Church and Elizabeth Kell Community Hall, which serves the local community in Southampton, after it received an application from the charity’s trustees to change its structure.
The organisation is an excepted charity, which means it does not have to register with the commission or file annual returns, but it must still comply with charity law.
During this process, the commission identified concerns around the charity’s governance and administration.
The commission subsequently reviewed the charity’s accounts and investment portfolio and found that funds “initially estimated as in the region of £290,000 may be unaccounted for”.
It noted additional concerns in relation to safeguarding at the charity and potentially unmanaged risks relating to a “connected individual”.
As a result, the commission subsequently escalated its engagement to a statutory inquiry in April to establish how the unaccounted-for funds were used.
As part of the statutory inquiry, the commission will review the trustees’ governance and management of the charity; the extent to which they exercised adequate control of the charity’s financial management.
This will include any loss or misappropriation of funds, and the sufficiency of the charity’s safeguarding arrangements.
The commission may extend the scope of its inquiry if any additional regulatory issues emerge.
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