An HIV/Aids services charity based in South London failed to submit three years’ worth of accounts to the Charity Commission as its trustees believed the charity had been dissolved, according to an inquiry report published today.
The African Families Support Services, which lists its charitable objectives as the relief of poverty, sickness (in particular HIV/Aids) and social exclusion of Afro-Caribbean and Africans living in the UK, failed to submit its annual accounts for the financial years ending March 31 2011 and 2012.
Representatives of the charity were contacted by telephone on 18 October 2013 and told that if the documents were not submitted by 11 November the organisation would be under investigation. On 11 November, the charity became part of a Commission inquiry into late filing charities.
Once the inquiry opened, representatives from the African Families Support Services informed the regulator that the activities of the charity had been taken over by another organisation called the Community Development Organisation (CDO) in March 2010.
Having receiving that information, the Commission deemed the last set of accounts it had received from the AFSS - for the year ending 31 March 2010 - to be inadequate as well.
The accounts for the years ending 31 March 2010 to 2014 were submitted to the regulator on 25 February 2015. These showed that the African Families Support Services hadn’t drawn any income since effectively merging with the CDO in 2010. It is now listed as up-to-date on the charity register, with an income of £0. At the time of the merger the charity had nine trustees, which has since fallen to three.
The Community Development Organisation is also still technically registered with the commission, even though its annual income has since fallen beneath the threshold. According to the charity registry, it too was late with filing its account information for the years ending 28 Feb 2011, and the 31 March 2012 and 2013. Its last accounts showed an income of £6,587 and spending of £16,133.
As a result of the inquiry £409,000 was accounted for and made transparent.
Civil Society News attempted to make contact with both charities, but found their contact details to be either out-of-date or disconnected.
