The regulator is taking a close look at an armed forces charity after an auditor flagged up a failure to provide records for £151,000 in donations and £89,000 of expenditure.
The Charity Commission announced a compliance case into Forgotten Veterans UK, which has filed its accounts for the year to November 2021 279 days late.
Independent examiner Helena Wilkinson, from Price Bailey, wrote in the accounts that large sums of money had not been properly accounted for.
She also said there were no minutes to cover the year.
The Portsmouth-based charity was established in 2016 and exists to provide support to military veterans in need – including through ‘buddy’ schemes.
Forgotten Veterans UK’s chair, Tony Reid, who founded the charity with Gary Weaving, told The News in Portsmouth that he was “not concerned” about the potential gaps in the accounts.
He said: “Over the past few months, we’ve resubmitted our accounts and sent The Charity Commission more documentation. The documents were not given to the accountants in time before they were submitted.
“They now have all the details on the transactions. We’re now not concerned about those accounts.”
A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “We have opened a regulatory compliance case to assess concerns raised with us about Forgotten Veterans.”
Wilkinson’s report says: “The receipts and payments accounts prepared for the CIO show cash received in the year of £151,903, however no records have been provided to match the record of the donations received to the deposits made of cash deposited and cash balances may have been retained and not deposited at the CIO’s bank account.”
While there was a written record for a restricted grant of £45,000, Wilkinson said there was nothing recorded to prove it had been spent in line with the grant agreement.
She said that, out of expenditure of £143,000, receipts were available for £54,000, leaving £89,000 outstanding.
“The majority of the expenditure was made from the bank account, authorised and paid for by the CEO, but limited receipts were provided to me as independent examiner,” Wilkinson wrote.
All of Forgotten Veterans UK’s trustees except Reid stood down earlier this year and Reid said he contacted the regulator for help. Four new trustees were appointed this month.