The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into My Community UK to look into concerns about trustees getting unauthorised private benefits. 

MC-UK is a community organisation based in Manchester and its income for its latest financial year was £133,000. It recently announced that it had been awarded £30,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to explore the heritage of Pakistani women aged 50 and over.

The Commission said concerns were first raised in December 2012 about people closely connected to the trustees obtaining unauthorised private benefits. The regulator met with the charity twice in 2013 and inspected the financial books and records.

It opened a statutory inquiry in February because: “Although the charity did take some corrective steps, including adopting a conflicts of interest policy, the Commission became increasingly concerned about the trustees' continuing inability to properly account for the charitable expenditure of the charity and properly manage conflicts of interest.”

MC-UK’s accounts reveal that its chair Tazeen Shah received £5,000 for consultancy work, and that Zahir Shah, who is a spouse of a trustee, received £15,720 for IT work.

In a statement the charity said: “MC-UK trustees are keen to respond to any concerns the commission has and resolve any areas of concern and as a result will be fully cooperating with the Commission.

“The current trustees and management feel that this will provide them with the opportunity to strengthen and improve their systems and processes.”

Last week the Commission published updated guidance on conflicts of interest.