Five volunteers at a lifeboat charity in Northern Ireland have appealed an order to remove them as members to the Northern Ireland Charity Tribunal.
The volunteers had previously been crew members at Lough Neagh Rescue, which provides lifeboat services on Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland’s largest lake.
The CCNI launched an inquiry into the charity in May last year, which is still ongoing; as part of that inquiry, it removed the volunteers as members in October. They appealed against the decision in December.
In August the CCNI also removed a trustee of the charity, Trevor McKee. McKee has also appealed against his removal to the Tribunal, and his appeal will now be held jointly with the five volunteers on 24 March.
The CCNI has the power under the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 to “remove charity trustees, officers, agents, employees and members on the grounds of charity misconduct or mismanagement and to protect the charity”. These powers are more wide-ranging than those of the Charity Commission in England and Wales, which can only remove members if they have previously been trustees and have been suspended by the Commission.
It is the first time the CCNI has used its powers to remove ordinary members.
Gregory Burke, one of the five volunteers, said that he, McKee and their fellow volunteers had been part of a group within the charity which had complained to the CCNI about misconduct and financial irregularity at Lough Neagh Rescue in 2012, and that this followed a long-running disagreement within the charity.
Burke said the CCNI investigation into the charity had been prompted by the concerns he and his fellow volunteers had raised. But he said the CCNI had instead decided his group were the source of the problem.
“The Commission has made a series of monumental blunders in its investigation,” he said. “They haven’t made a proper inquiry, and they’ve focused on us as scapegoats. They’ve said we aren’t fit to be charity volunteers.”
A CCNI spokeswoman said her organisation had opened a statutory inquiry into Lough Neagh Rescue in May “to assist the organisation going forward” and confirmed it had removed five members and a trustee.
“The Commission is continuing to work with the charity to improve and maintain good governance and, in its investigation, will look at addressing concerns about the historic administration and governance of Lough Neagh Rescue Ltd,” she said.
Lough Neagh Rescue was contacted by civilsociety.co.uk but no one was available for comment.
