Animal charity Nowzad reached a five-figure financial agreement with a departing employee last year, during a period which saw Pen Farthing’s ex-girlfriend leave her role at the organisation.
The payment was made in the months before Nowzad and Farthing, its chief executive, came to fame rescuing animals during the Afghanistan airlift.
Nowzad’s director Hannah Surowinski, who had been in a relationship with Farthing for several years, left the charity in December 2020.
The charity’s accounts for March 2020-21 show that an unnamed member of staff received over £30,000 as a one-off payment when they departed. The documents also show that total pay to “the chief executive’s partner” during these months was almost double their pay the year before.
Surowinski left Nowzad around six months after the time when, according to other media sources, Farthing started a new romantic relationship.
Neither Nowzad or Surowinski responded to questions about who received the payment, but in a Twitter message posted the month she left the charity, Surowinski wrote: “What a year. All I can say is thank goodness for the loyalty of dogs.”
Five-figure payment
In a personal message on the charity’s website encouraging donors to leave money in their wills, Farthing wrote: “I personally make sure that all monies we receive are used as our supporters want their donations to be used; improving the lives of animals in a country where they currently have only us to watch out for them.”
The most recent financial accounts, filed with the Charity Commission last month, show that staff salaries in 2020-21 included a “settlement payment of £32,808 payable to one member of staff”.
Settlement payments are typically made as part of a legal agreement with an employee when they leave their position.
During the year the charity had a total income of £838,078 and spent £707,602 on charitable activities.
Loyalty
Information online indicates that Surowinski left the charity in December 2020, having worked at Nowzad since 2013, at the same time as she and Farthing were in a relationship. This is reflected in accounts going back several years, which state that “the chief executive’s partner is also employed by the charity”.
The total cost of Suronwinski’s employment in 2020-21 is £58,698, up sharply from £34,656 the previous year, even though she did not work the full 12 months.
Her departure, and the charity’s decision to reach a financial settlement with a departing member of staff, occurred in the same year that Farthing started a relationship with Kaisa Markhus. That relationship started in 2020, according to an interview Farthing and his now wife gave to The Times.
Surowinski now works for another animal rights charity. On 31 December 2020, she wrote on Twitter and Instagram: “What a year… All I can say is thank goodness for the loyalty of dogs.”
What a year...
— Hannah Surowinski (@Han_Suro) December 31, 2020
All I can say is thank goodness for the loyalty of dogs ❤️
Here’s to 2021 and whatever it will bring! 💫 pic.twitter.com/4fGNBFCqwj
The charity also spent £8,100 on legal advice in 2020-21, having not incurred any legal costs in the previous three years.
Airlift
Farthing and Nowzad came to national prominence last summer during the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, as the former marine worked to evacuate his staff and the animals in their care out of Afghanistan.
After days of public pressure, and amid accusations that the prime minister intervened in his case, Farthing was able to fly to safety with more than 150 animals. Some 68 members of Nowzad staff were able to leave Afghanistan days later.
Farthing was criticised by some politicians after it emerged that he threatened to “destroy” the reputation of political aides if they did not help him airlift his animals and colleagues out of Kabul.
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