The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into a mosque charity that has been subject to three compliance cases in the past four years.
The compliance cases “examined issues arising from an ongoing dispute” between two groups vying to represent West Midlands-based Dudley Central Mosque and Muslim Community Centre, the regulator said in a statement.
The commission said it opened a statutory inquiry last month because the last year that the charity had filed accounts ended in March 2017.
But the regulator said this failure was “symptomatic of wider administration and governance issues that persist at the charity, despite previous engagement”.
The commission issued advice to the charity in November 2018, when it told the mosque to seek legal help in establishing the identity of its trustees.
The regulator suggested the charity hold elections to the board overseen by an independent committee, but one side then disputed the outcome of that election.
The charity was also included in the commission’s ‘double defaulters’ class inquiry earlier this year after failing to submit annual accounts two or more years in a row.
The commission’s inquiry will examine whether trustees are acting in line with the charity’s governing document and whether they have fulfilled their legal duties on financial reporting.
The regulator said it was “concerned that, despite previous engagement and regulatory advice, the charity has not resolved its administration and governance issues”.
The mosque’s income was £170,000 in the year ending in March 2017, the last period when it published accounts. The charity held just under £2m in reserves.
The telephone number provided for the mosque on the Charity Commission website does not work. The charity did not respond to a request for comment by email.