Case opened after complaint claims charity plots secret head office sale
The Charity Commission has opened a compliance case into the international aid charity Penny Appeal after concerns were raised about alleged governance and financial mismanagement.
A whistleblowing complaint, seen by Third Sector, alleges the charity is looking to make all staff at its Wakefield headquarters redundant, sell its head office and move its operations to Birmingham.
The complaint says the potential moves were discussed in a series of “secret, off-the-books meetings without proper documentation or adherence to approved protocols”.
The charity denied all the claims but said it had commissioned an independent review into the complaints.
A Penny Appeal spokesperson said it operated with “robust governance procedures to ensure transparency, accountability and proper documentation” across all areas of its work.
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Furious row between mental health charity and former chief executive
Police have received alerts from both sides of the dispute at Staffordshire Network for Mental Health; one of harassment and one of a “suspicious incident”.
The Charity Commission has also been alerted to alleged concerns, including possible safeguarding and governance risks, but is yet to make any findings.
The charity’s former chief executive, Dani Brook, reported safeguarding, governance and financial risks to both the police and the regulator.
Brook’s allegations include financial mismanagement, whistleblower obstruction and a number of safeguarding risks.
The charity denied all the allegations, saying that they were “unsubstantiated and defamatory”.
The charity said it would not be drawn into addressing each allegation in turn, but added that it was in discussion with legal representatives to “stop further defamatory statements from being made”.
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Regulator to use extra funding to help charities with impact reporting
The Charity Commission will put some of a boost of more than £8m to its budget to help improve impact reporting processes in the sector, its chief executive has said.
David Holdsworth said the regulator would use the increased funding settlement it received from central government to modernise some of its systems and technology.
“As the public purse tightens, being able to evidence things is going to be really important and one of the things we’ve never been able to crack in the sector is impact reporting,” said Holdsworth.
“It’s really patchy across the sector and what I want to do is work with the sector in the next few years to resolve that.”