The Charity Commission is investigating a London-based accountancy charity that has failed to submit accounting information over several years.
On 10 December, the regulator opened a statutory inquiry into Community Accountancy Self Help (CASH), which provides financial advice and training to small charities and voluntary groups.
The regulator said it identified “a repeated pattern of failures in submitting accounting information” over a number of years.
CASH last filed its annual return and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2020 on 31 January 2021.
According to the regulator’s website, CASH’s accounting information for the year ended 2021 is now overdue by more than 1,000 days.
Trustees failed to make the necessary provisions
In 2018 and 2020, the charity was placed under the commission’s double defaulters inquiry, which investigates charities that have failed twice or more over the past five years to submit required accounting information.
During its previous engagements with CASH, the commission “emphasised trustees’ statutory duties”, noting that “the charity, given its purposes, should be setting a good example to the charities to which it offers services”.
It said: “The regulator encouraged the trustees to make the necessary provisions to ensure all future accounting information was filed on time.
“Despite this extensive engagement, the charity is again in default, having failed to file accounts for years ended March 2021, 2022, and 2023.”
Scope of the inquiry
The regulator will look at the extent to which CASH’s trustees have been complying with their legal duties in relation to the administration, governance and management of the charity.
It will examine their compliance with their legal obligations for the content, preparation and filing of the charity’s accounts and annual returns.
In addition, it will determine whether the trustees have been managing CASH in line with its objects and governing document and has “a sufficient number of willing and capable trustees”.
It will also seek to identify whether there has been any misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity.
In the year ended 31 March 2020, CASH recorded a total income of just over £101,000 against expenditure of just under £107,000.
The charity has two trustees and three volunteers, according to the commission’s website.
Civil Society has contacted CASH for comment.
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