Swansea charity Cyrenians Cymru formally entered administration yesterday as it is revealed that staff have continued to work without pay for almost six weeks.
News of the homelessness charity’s collapse was announced by the board of trustees earlier this month, following “systematic and extensive” suspected fraud worth £800,000.
Polly Stone, marketing and partnerships manager for Cyrenians Cymru told Civil Society News today: “We have been unpaid now since the 19th December, so it shows you how loyal the staff team is. They have found the energy and the drive to actually come into work and provide these services.”
Any future payments to staff have “not been clarified”, according to Stone.
Staff were waiting this morning to hear from chief executive Conrad Watkins for further details about the administration process.
“They were frantically trying to find papers to make sure that the administrative process could begin yesterday,” she said. “We haven’t had confirmation of that or been informed of anything. They haven’t gone through the receivership process before so they are a little bit clueless as to what happens next themselves.”
Last Thursday the charity announced a fundraising comedy night at the Swansea Grand Theatre. The show, featuring several television personalities including Jon Richardson, Adam Hills, Josh Widdicombe, Lloyd Langford, Elis James and Rhod Gilbert, sold out within five days.
Stone said funds from the show would go into an interim account set up on behalf of Cyrenians Cymru by the Gwalia Housing Association to "continue to provide ongoing front-line services at this difficult time".
“That is for their management team and the administrator to decide,” said Stone. “Cyrennians Cymru will be out of the picture in that respect. So any discussions they have or agreements that they make, are nothing to do with us anymore.”
"Unsettling"
Stone said that a possible takeover of Cyrenians Cymru by another charity has been discussed but that no agreement has been reached.
“There have been discussions but I don’t know how viable that is,” said Stone. “We’ve got ten projects – four of which are supported housing, so they are Supporting People funded – and the other projects are either self-sustaining, or have relied on grant funding. So without generating income or some sort of investment in the other six projects, they probably will be lost.”
“We don’t know if there will be certain redundancies issued,” she said.
“We are such a large organisation in respect of the services that we deliver. It’s very unsettling for our service users as well. They don’t know where they are going to turn to.”
Cyrenians Cymru specialises in tackling homelessness and poverty in Swansea and the surrounding area. It was registered with the Charity Commission in 1974 and employs 75 staff. It has ten active projects with an estimated 2,500 service users in Wales.
Earlier this month, South Wales Police confirmed to Civil Society News the arrests of a 40-year-old woman in January and former finance director, Mark Davies, in December, both on suspicion of fraud.
In a statement released on 14th January by Mark Sheridan, chair of Cyrenians Cymru, he said: “It is with profound sadness that the Cyrenians Cymru board of trustees has taken a decision to declare the charity insolvent and enter administration.
“The independent financial investigation, which was initiated by the board and senior management towards the end of last year, uncovered a systematic and extensive suspected fraud. This was reported to the police in December and is now the subject of a police investigation. Two employees from the charity’s finance department have been dismissed and arrested.”
This article has been updated with information about how funds will be spent from an up-coming comedy fundraiser.
