An under-pressure military veterans’ charity that is being looked into by the regulator has received another blow – a demand from the MoD to return a £25,000 grant.
British Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association is the subject of a Charity Commission compliance case after trustees terminated the contract of chief executive Ceri McDade.
She has challenged the decision, which will be examined at an employment tribunal.
Before taking the action, BNTVA’s trustees issued a statement saying they had become aware of “some large problems that needed addressing”.
Now, The Mirror reports, the Armed Forces Covenant Trust, which administers some MoD funds for veterans’ projects, wants the immediate return of the first installment of a £100,000 grant.
BNTVA won the grant to carry out a two-year research project into the “moral injury” of taking part in weapons tests.
The grant was seen as a significant step in the right direction but, although the first £25,000 was handed over, the work has not started, The Mirror said.
A spokesman for the MoD said: “We are grateful for the work carried out by the BNTVA and have met directly with trustees.
“However, the trust has taken the decision to withdraw the grant. We will continue to engage with the BNTVA throughout this period. We recognise there are vulnerable veterans within the nuclear test veteran community and continue to encourage applications to our current open programmes.”
A BNTVA spokesperson said the charity was a “financially viable organisation”, but the ongoing tribunal and compliance case meant it was “not proper” to share any further information.
BNTVA supports British military veterans whose health was affected by government nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s.
McDade was a trustee between April 2020 and October 2021 before becoming chief executive, according to the charity’s most recent annual report.
In a statement posted online in January, the board said it had opened an independent review of how the charity was run because it was “extremely concerned that something was not going right”.
The trustees said there had been “a considerable shift” in the focus of the charity’s work, “some of which has clearly been to the detriment of our key responsibilities”.
The charity terminated McDade’s contract five days later.