The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into a Plymouth-based Islamic charity established 20 years ago to support local communities.
The regulator announced that it is investigating Plymouth Islamic Education Trust (PIETY) over persistent failures to submit accounts on time.
It said it had been engaging with the charity for more than a decade, with PIETY “repeatedly failing” to comply with statutory reporting requirements in 2014.
The commission’s full investigation comes after it twice placed PIETY in its double defaulter class inquiry for charities that fail to file their annual documents for two or more years over the last five years.
‘Unwilling or unable to comply with legal duties’
“Despite significant regulatory engagement on this matter by the commission, the trustees have consistently demonstrated that they’re either unwilling or unable to comply with their legal duties,” the regulator said.
It added that its inquiry will examine the extent to which PIETY trustees are complying with their legal duties around the charity’s administration, governance and management, including seeking evidence of any misconduct or mismanagement.
PIETY was established in 2005 “with the aim of providing the local community with a variety of support and services in addition to contributing to the general well-being of society”, according to its website.
It lists its activities as including citizenship and English-language courses, IT and Islamic awareness training and youth work, along with drug rehabilitation and family support in partnership with other organisations.
Its last five years of accounts are recorded as having been submitted 181, 160, 525, 766 and 238 days late.
For the financial year ending 20 November 2023, PIETY recorded a total income of £225,000 and total expenditure of £226,000.
PIETY: ‘Covid-19 caused us to lag behind’
A spokesperson for the charity acknowledged its historic delays in timely reporting, which they said had been “fully rectified” in 2014.
“Unfortunately, this has happened again during and after Covid-19,” the spokesperson added. “We filed our accounts on time until the [pandemic], which disorganised our staffing.
“This caused us to lag behind on two financial years, which have now been submitted, and there aren’t any reports lagging behind.”
PIETY’s spokesperson said trustees are willing to cooperate fully with the commission’s inquiry.
“This engagement is seen as an opportunity to improve our performance to avoid this from happening again,” they said.
“Everything is now in place and we’re willing to work closely with the Charity Commission to improve our policies and procedures.”
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