A Catholic charity registered in 1966 is being investigated after its trustees repeatedly failed to file accounts on time.
The Charity Commission announced this week that it had opened a full investigation into the Order of Friars Minor Conventual after directing the charity in January last year to file outstanding accounts and review its accounting processes as part of a “double defaulter” class inquiry.
While the London-based charity has since submitted overdue accounts for 2020 and 2021, when it recorded an income of £839,000, it has not yet filed accounts for 2022 and 2023.
As a result, the regulator escalated its engagement to a full statutory inquiry on 20 November this year and will examine the extent to which the trustees are complying with their legal duties in respect of the administration, governance and management of the charity.
In particular, it will review trustees’ statutory accounting and reporting responsibilities and financial management as well as the adequacy of their oversight of the charity’s operation and activities.
The commission said it may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional regulatory issues emerge.
A spokesperson for the charity said: “The charity is aware of the investigation and is liaising with one of the investigating officers to provide her with the outstanding information required and other official charity documents.
“The process will take a number of weeks but under the supervision of the investigating officer we expect to be compliant again early in the new year.”
Covid impact on accounts filing
The charity’s most recently filed accounts for the 2021 calendar year state that the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to its delay in filing financial documents.
They read: “The pandemic has had a significant impact on the running of the charity over the past number of years.
“Our charity has experienced a significant reduction in the collections taken up at our churches, in some instances by as much as 50%.
“Many of the volunteers who used to work in our parishes have also stopped coming resulting in an increased workload for the friars. Some of these volunteers used to help our elderly friars with the finances.
“The result has been a delay in the compiling and the submission of some of the friary financial reports.”
The international Order of Friars Minor, headquartered in Italy, was founded by Francis of Assisi in 1209.
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