The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has concluded its investigation into a 100-year-old charity after finding its former treasurer misused its funds.
In a letter sent to the charity’s trustees, OSCR said the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) had failed to ensure the “appropriate supervision” of its former treasurer Neil Baxter.
Baxter, who was treasurer and secretary of the charity from 2008 to 2017, was alleged to have increased his remuneration without the knowledge or agreement of the council.
OSCR identified issues with the financial information supplied to the charity’s council as not being sufficiently detailed or specific, particularly “in respect of the remuneration of individual members of staff” so trustees were unable “to identify potential issues”.
This may have contributed to the misuse of the charity funds going “unnoticed and unchallenged over a number of years”, the regulator said.
It was not clear how long the issues set out in the report had been going on, OSCR wrote, but they facilitated “the misuse of the charity’s assets by the former secretary/treasurer”.
The letter reads: “There was really no effective oversight of his activities by the charity trustees. This resulted in clear financial damage and loss, as well as reputational damage, to the charity.”
While OSCR ruled this as mismanagement between 2008 to 2017, it said there is no evidence that it was intentional or that any charity trustees benefited from it.
Background
A report in Architect’s Journal states that in November 2017 almost 100 architects called for an overhaul of the charitable organisation.
The charity said in a statement that it had subsequently asked Baxter to step down.
Police Scotland investigated RIAS’s finances but closed its inquiry this year.
OSCR: ‘Consistent positive engagement’
In the letter to trustees, OSCR said it was satisfied that in dealing with the issues raised by this misuse of funds “the charity’s then trustees acted in the interests of the charity and with the level of diligence required of charity trustees”.
Since November 2017, the charity has engaged “consistently and openly” with the regulator, OSCR said.
It stated it was encouraged by the charity’s change to a more compact trustee board with more oversight of the behaviours of senior staff. The charity intends to appoint a governance manager.
The regulator thanked the charity for its “consistent positive engagement with OSCR’s inquiry” and said that they were “very conscious of the length of time” it had taken to conclude it, so thanked the trustees for their patience throughout the process.
RIAS did not wish to provide a comment.
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