The Charity Commission has criticised the former trustees of a religious charity for disregarding their responsibilities in relation to its financial controls, in a report published today.
Its statutory inquiry into Keren Shmuel, a grant-making charity established in 1996 for the advancement of the Jewish religion and religious education, found that former trustees failed to fulfill their duties and had led to misconduct and/or mismanagement in its administration.
It found that the charity’s former trustees had a “serious disregard for, and/or a lack of understanding of, the importance of proper financial controls and accountability in respect of the charity’s funds”.
This included evidence of poor management, lack of records of the charity’s expenditure overseas and failure to file accounts on time.
The commission also issued the current trustees with an official warning, requiring them to make improvements within a specified timeframe.
Its decision states: “The failure to ensure that the charity’s annual accounting documents were filed on time (for the relevant periods) shows a repetitive failure on the part of the former trustees to comply with the duties of a trustee to be accountable and comply with the law.
“This is continuing evidence of the former trustees’ misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity and is a criminal offence under section 173 of the Act.
“The misconduct and/or mismanagement is compounded by the fact that the charity had already been subject to the class Inquiry and the assurances provided as part of that by the former trustees in May 2017.”
A record of late fillings
The charity was first investigated by the regulator in 2017 when it failed to file its 2014 and 2015 annual returns and accounts on time, which resulted in a class inquiry.
The regulator then opened a statutory inquiry into the charity when it failed to file its accounts on time for 2019 and 2021.
Its inquiries also found that former trustees transferred more than £550,000 of charitable funds overseas between 2018 and 2022.
The regulator found that there was insufficient evidence to show and explain how the majority of the charity’s funds were expended to further the purpose for which the funds were sent overseas.
Civil Society has asked Keren Shmuel to comment.
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